Abstract
In this paper, we discuss the control of a 3D (3-dimensional) spatial flexible manipulator. In the 3D spatial flexible manipulator, object parameters for the control change depending on the arm configuration. Therefore, gains in the controller for the vibration suppression have to be changed configuration-dependently. In this paper, we propose a configuration-dependent adaptive controller in which the joint accelerations are used as commands to suppress the vibration. We discuss two configuration-dependent control schemes. One is a scheme which adds damping to the vibration system. We call this scheme as ‘active damping control.’ The other is a scheme which uses the optimal regulator. These schemes are combined to be implemented on a 3D flexible manipulator. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the control schemes. In the experiment, we find discontinuous gains of the optimal regulator for some arm configurations. Also the plausible reasons for discontinuity are briefly discussed.
