Discrete-time transfer matrix modeling of flexible robots under feedback control

This paper presents results from using the discrete-time transfer matrix method (DT-TMM) to model flexible robots under feedback control. The DT-TMM is powerful, but not very well known. DT-TMM analysis is very computationally efficient because the dimensions of the transfer matrices remain small regardless of the number of elements in the model. The system transfer matrix for the flexible robot in this paper is 5x5. Further, the DT-TMM can model feedback without using a reduced-order model. While the DT-TMM approach has been verified in the literature by comparing its results to those from other simulation approaches, little if any results have been presented comparing DT-TMM simulations to experiments. This paper compares DT-TMM simulations to experimental results for a single-flexible link robot (SFLR) under four different control cases.