Robust control of flexible manipulators via μ -synthesis

Mansour Karkoub, Gary Balas, Kumar Tamma, Max Donath

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

44 Scopus citations

Abstract

An experimental flexible arm serves as testbed to investigate the efficacy of the μ-synthesis design technique in the control of flexible manipulators. A linearized model of the testbed is derived for control design. Discrepancies and errors between the linearized model and the physical system are accounted for in the control design via uncertainty models. These uncertainties include: unmodeled high-frequency dynamics, errors in natural frequencies and damping levels and actuator and sensor errors. Colocated and noncolocated controllers are designed using μ-synthesis. It is observed, theoretically and experimentally, that the μ-synthesis design technique is a viable control tool for tip tracking with flexible manipulators.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)725-734
Number of pages10
JournalControl Engineering Practice
Volume8
Issue number7
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2000

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The authors wish to acknowledge the generous financial support from NASA Langley Control/Structure Interaction Group (NAG-1-821), NSF (ECS-9110254), and the University of Minnesota McKnight Land-Grant Professorship Program. The authors would also like to thank the Productivity Center at the Mechanical Engineering Department.

Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

Keywords

  • Flexible manipulators
  • Robust control* μ -Synthesis

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