Output regulation for flexible-joint manipulators using partial state measurement

A linear-state feedback regulator for flexible-joint manipulators is proposed. The link-position vector (in the joint space) is regulated to a given desired position using partial state measurement. The actuator-position vector is regulated to a certain equilibrium point related to the link-desired position. This work uses our earlier result [1] which puts the gravity vector of the robot dynamic model in a new specific form. The: fact that the spring matrix representing joint flexibility is of high order of magnitude [3-5] is exploited to prove the global asymptotic stability of the origin of the closed loop system.