Motion and Force Control of a Flexible Manipulator with Velocity Controlled DC Motors.

This paper presents a simple method for controlling both the motion and contact force of a flexible manipulator without calculating inverse dynamics. The contact force is converted into a velocity vector according to the proposed force/velocity conversion law considering the flexibility of the manipulator. The velocity vector which is tangent to the constraint surface is calculated using velocity control law. The desired velocity vector is obtained as a sum of the above two velocity vectors, and is converted into angular velocity vectors considering deflectional velocity of the flexible links. The desired angular velocity vector is obtained as a sum of the above angular velocity vector and strain feedback term. Motion and force control is performed using DC motors whose desired values are the above desired angular velocity vectors. Computer simulations and experimental analyses are carried out to clarify the validity of the proposed method.