Robust controller design for flexible robot manipulators: an optimal output feedback controller design approach

A robust optimal output feedback controller design approach is presented and applied to the controller design problem for one-link flexible robot manipulators. The approach presented can be applied to systems with structured or unstructured perturbations of the system dynamics. The design goal is to find a controller which will stabilize the system under all possible perturbations and which mill minimize a given quadratic performance index under worst perturbations. Algorithms are proposed to design output feedback controllers to achieve stability and performance robustness for systems subject to both structured and unstructured perturbations. This design approach is then applied to one-link flexible robot manipulators. A second order transfer function, which is parametrized by a three dimensional vector, is introduced to represent the flexible dynamics of a robot manipulator. An alternative design approach, which does not take the flexible dynamics into account, is also undertaken.