A passivity-based control case study of flexible-link manipulators

The robotic control problem is considered from the passivity-based control point of view and a modified version of the computed torque method for rigid robots is briefly reviewed. A control strategy suitable for flexible-link robots manipulating large payloads is also presented, which effectively exploits the passivity property satisfied by a suitably defined set of inputs and outputs for the system in conjunction with an approximate model of the dynamics. Both of the above control schemes are experimentally implemented on a flexible-link, multi-joint arm in order to investigate their characteristics and provide useful insight into the control problem for flexible robots.