Abstract
In this paper an effective on-line method is proposed for detecting a collision of flexible cantilevered beams such as manipulator with some unlooked-for obstacles. The mathematical model of the flexible cantilevered beam with the collision phenomena is described by an Euler-Bernoulli type partial differential equation with the model of the collision that is described by the time-space function. A scalar function (collision detection function) consisting of the innovation process of the Kalman filter for the finite-dimensional system corresponding to the mathematical model of the flexible beam is introduced for making a decision when a collision occurs. The numerical simulation and the experiment results show that the proposed on-line method obviously detects when the collision occurs.
