Abstract
This paper discusses a control for a non-linear distributed-parameter system of a flexible arm with a suspended load, taking mass and stiffness distributions of the arm into consideration. The fact that the rest system has null potential and kinetic energy is employed to derive an asymptotically stable control law which suppresses both the load-swing and the elastic vibration of the link and controls the angular position of the arm. The approach needs neither linealization of the system dynamics nor the modal decompositon of the dynamics. Therefore, the resultant control law does stabilize the non-linear dynamics of the system free from the traditional spillover problems. The validity of the proposed approach is demonstrated by several experiments, and then the effectiveness of the controller is shown.
