Stability in active mass damping control of a flexible robot

Active mass damping has been shown to be an effective method for reducing vibrations in flexible robots by previous researchers working on an experimental test bed at Georgia Tech. Acceleration feedback can cause instability in this test bed. System identification and root locus analysis were used to determine the causes of this instability. Several potential modifications to the system were simulated including: 1) replacing accelerometers with position sensors; 2) removing second order dynamics from the actuator; and 3) adding an additional accelerometer to use modal feedback.