Optimal control of a flexible manipulator and controller order reduction

Abstract

Presented is a control system design study for a flexible manipulator. The device consists of a DC electric motor drive connected via two flexible links to an end effector for position control. The paper details in tutotrial fashion optimal control designs using both H2 and H∞ methods with dynamic weighting. The resulting controller is found to be fairly of high order for implementation and so controller order reduction is considered. It is observed that reduction of the controller order beyond a nominal amount cannot be done. A reason for this is postulated using novel perturbation models where it is found that the controller reduction problem is, in this case, a roadblock to practical implementation of the control. Copyright © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.