Compliance control for a two-link flexible manipulator.

Abstract

A new approach to the static analysis of the link compliances is presented for appropriate compliance control of a flexible manipulator. Unlike a rigid manipulator, there exists the interaction between the servo flexibility and link flexibility in a flexible manipulator system. Therefore, it is important for smooth control to understand properties of the link compliances and make good conditions of the system compliances. For this purpose, the authors derived the generalized compliance matrix, compliance ellipsoid and compliance center of the link flexibility. It was found that there was an adequate attitude of a manipulator for excluding the influence of the link compliance and establishing tasks smoothly. The validity of this analytic method was investigated by experiments of the round peg-hole assembly. A two-link flexible SCARA manipulator system was constructed for this purpose. This manipulator was 1.5 m long. The results showed that the smooth and precise assembly was established by selecting adequate attitude and setting servo compliance conditions more flexible than the link compliances.