This paper reports on the vibration control of a flexible space manipulator in which the tip deflection of each flexible link is fed back in a closed control system. A simple dynamic model is derived using the static deflection model to derive the system dynamics equations of a flexible manipulator. A force/torque sensor incorporated in the manipulator's wrist is proposed as a new type of sensors to estimate the deflection. To investigate the effectiveness of this control method, a two-link flexible SCARA manipulator system was constructed. This manipulator was 1.5 m long and was floating on a base-plate using air bearings capable of handling a 40kg payload. The experimental results showed that the deflection feedback realized the same effect on the vibration control as the general method of strain gauge output feedback.
