Pneumatic drive active vibration control for flexible manipulator using an adaptive interactive PD controller

A pneumatic drive system is used as the actuator of a flexible manipulator to control its motion as a rigid body and suppress its vibration when consider its low stiffness. A pulse code modulation (PCM) valve is used to construct a single-input dual-output control system. Due to the time-varying and nonlinear properties of the system, an improved adaptive interactive PD controller is applied for positioning and vibration control. The system model is used in simulation. A description of an adaptive interactive controller and our modification is provided. Experimental setup of this pneumatic drive system is described. Experiments for positioning and vibration control are conducted. The simulation and experimental results show the feasibility of the actuator and the effectiveness of the control strategy.