Feedforward Vibration Control of a Flexible Manipulator by Optimizing MFC Input Voltage Profile

Abstract

This paper presents a novel feedforward vibration control technique for a point-to-point (PTP) motion task of a flexible manipulator by utilizing macro fiber composite (MFC) which is one of piezoelectric devices. We use a MFC attached to one side of the flexible manipulator that has one revolute joint as an actuator. For the PTP motion task, the trajectory profile of the rotational motion is set to a cycloidal motion. The input voltage profile of the MFC is designed to suppress the residual vibration. In this method, we attempt to express the input voltage profile using Gaussian functions. The input voltage profile is dependent upon the coefficients of the Gaussian functions. To achieve the suppression of the residual vibration, the coefficients are tuned by a particle swarm optimization. We perform experiments to verify the validity of the vibration control method based on simulations. Results obtained from simulations and experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for suppressing the residual vibration. One feature of the present method is that the residual vibration of the flexible manipulator system with a PTP motion can be cancelled by designing the input voltage profile of the MFC.