Inertial Vibration Damping Control for a Flexible Base Manipulator

Abstract

A rigid (micro) robot mounted serially to the tip of a long, flexible (macro) manipulator is often used to increase reach capability, but flexibility in the macromanipulator can interfere with positioning accuracy. A rigid manipulator attached to a flexible but unactuated base was used to study a scheme to achieve positioning of the micromanipulator combined with enhanced vibration damping of the base. Inertial interaction forces and torques acting between the robot and its base were modeled and studied to determine how to use them to damp the vibration. One issue is that there are locations in the workspace where the rigid robot loses its ability to create interactions in one or more degrees of freedom. These “inertial singularities” are functions of the rigid robot’s joint variables. A performance index was developed to predict the ability of the rigid robot to damp vibration and will help ensure the robot is operating in joint space configurations favorable for inertial damping. When the performance index is used along with the appropriate choice of feedback gains, the inertia effects, or those directly due to accelerating the robot’s links, have the greatest influence on the interactions. By commanding the robot link’s accelerations out of phase with the base velocity, vibration energy will be removed from the system. This signal is then added to the rigid robot’s position control signal. Simulations of a rigid three degree of freedom anthropomorphic robot mounted on a flexible base were developed and show the effectiveness of the control scheme. In addition, experimental results demonstrating two degree of freedom vibration damping are included.