Simulation-driven design helps create vibration free control system for a robot with a 30 foot long arm

摘要

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) engineers used simulation-driven design techniques to create a vibration-free control system for a 30-foot-long robot arm in a fraction of the time that would have been required using the traditional physical testing approach. The robot is designed to reach inside underground nuclear storage tanks to break down waste into smaller pieces so it can be pumped out. The need to reach to the bottom of the tank through a small hole meant that the arm had to be long and thin, which made it prone to vibration. A comprehensive, computer-based, dynamic model of the robot was used to develop control strategies using the inertial forces generated by arm movement to damp out induced oscillations. Prototype testing showed these strategies effectively controlled vibration.