Utilization of smart transduction devices for flexure control

This paper is concerned with developing innovative solutions for flexure control of robotic and other mechatronic systems with structural flexibility. It focuses on the utilization of smart sensor and actuator technologies for flexure control. In this regard, use of promising modern sensor and actuator technologies such as piezoelectric (PZT) transducers and shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators is studied. Implementation of a nonlinear control algorithm is presented for a two-link manipulator actuated by PZT transducers. Furthermore, deflection control of a flexible beam is studied using shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators. Experimental results are presented which illustrate the effectiveness of the control algorithms and improved performance of the controllers over conventional ones