1997 Volume 63 Issue 605 Pages 135-140
A nondestructive testing method is considered for a flexible one-link manipulator with a robot hand. First, a mathematical model is described by an Euler-Bernoulli beam with a tip mass at its free end, taking into account the dynamics of DC servo motor. The mathematical model which involves spatially varying coefficients due to material defects of the manipulator is presented by the finite Galerkin method using B-spline functions. Second, parameter estimation problem is solved for the model without material flaw. Third, the output of the model with flaw is evaluated using the parameter values of the model without flaw. A detection algorithm is proposed for estimating defective regions based on the evaluations mentioned above. Computational results are summarized with experimental data obtained by an optical encoder.