Vision feedback based end-effector motion control of a flexible robot arm

This paper addresses issue of end-effector trajectory tracking control of robot arms with link flexibility. By using a vision system consisting of a CCD camera and a video tracker, a direct method of end-effector position sensing and an indirect method for link deflection sensing are presented. Based on vision feedback using the vision system, an end-effector trajectory tracking control strategy is proposed. Experiments of end-effector trajectory tracking control are carried out with a 2-link flexible robot system as a test bed. The results confirm effectiveness and usefulness of the proposed sensing methods and control method.