Robust control of a flexible-arm robot using Kharitonov theorem and swarm intelligence

摘要

In this paper, Kharitonov stability theorem is utilized to design control law for flexible arm robots. Hence, not only the stability of the controller is guaranteed but also a wide range of uncertainty in the system can be introduced. To evaluate the performance of the proposed control strategy and to demonstrate its applicability and effectiveness, it is employed to control a realistic industrial benchmark problem for a flexible manipulator. The gearbox stiffness is considered nonlinear and the system has uncertainty in the model, due to end load variations. The proposed controller is tested as well for disturbances injected at the motor and the tool. Results of the response of the system with the control schemes are presented. The robustness performance of the controller is evaluated in terms of reference tool position tracking in the presence of the mentioned disturbances and uncertainties.