Over the last few decades, extensive use of flexible manipulators in various robotic applications has made it as one of the research interests for many scholars over the world. Recent studies on the modeling, sensor systems and controllers for the applications of flexible robotic manipulators are reviewed in order to complement the previous literature surveyed by Benosman & Vey (Robotica 22:533---545, 2004) and Dwivedy & Eberhard (Mech. Mach. Theory 41:749---777, 2006) . A brief introduction of the essential modeling techniques is first presented, followed by a review of the practical alternatives of sensor systems that can help scientists or engineers to choose the appropriate sensors for their applications. It followed by the main goal of this paper with a comprehensive review of the control strategies for the flexible manipulators and flexible joints that were studied in recent literatures. The issues for controlling flexible manipulators are highlighted. Most of the noteworthy control techniques that were not covered in the recent surveys in references (Benosman & Vey Robotica 22:533---545, 2004; Dwivedy & Eberhard Mech. Mach. Theory 41:749---777, 2006) are then reviewed. It concludes by providing some possible issues for future research works.

Review of Control and Sensor System of Flexible Manipulator

Active vibration control of a flexible beam using a non-collocated acceleration sensor and piezoelectric patch actuator

Active aeroelastic flutter suppression of a supersonic plate with piezoelectric material

Explicit form of an implicit method for inverse force identification

Space manipulators are flexible structures. Vibration problem will be unavoidable due to motion or external disturbance excitation. Model based control methods will not maintain the required accuracy because of the existence of nonlinear factors and parameter uncertainties. To solve these problems, fuzzy logic control laws with different membership function groups are adopted to suppress vibrations of a flexible smart manipulator using collocated piezoelectric sensor/actuator pair. Also, dual-mode controllers combining fuzzy logic and proportional integral control are designed, for suppressing the lower amplitude vibration near the equilibrium point significantly. Experimental comparison research is conducted, using fuzzy control algorithms and the dual-mode controllers with different membership functions. The experimental results show that the adopted fuzzy control algorithms can substantially suppress the larger amplitude vibration; and the dual-mode controllers can also damp out the lower amplitude vibration significantly. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed fuzzy controllers and dual-mode controllers can suppress vibration effectively, and the optimal placement is feasible.

Juan-Chun Peng

Papers

Vibration control of piezoelectric smart structures based on system identification technique: Numerical simulation and experimental study