Abstract
The present paper introduces a minimum-time control for a flexible manipulator of a space robot. In order to confirm that the bending moment on the flexible manipulator does not exceed the limit during the operation, the bending moment at the root of the flexible manipulator is treated as a constraint in the time optimal control problem and is analyzed as such. The present control is formulated as a two-point boundary value problem (TPBVP) having an inequality constraint on the variables and is solved using a gradient method. Results obtained via numerical analyses of the proposed control are compared to those obtained using the time optimal control, which is intended to reduce the operation time of the flexible manipulator.
