ON THE FLEXURAL VIBRATIONS OF ELASTIC MANIPULATORS WITH PRISMATIC JOINTS

The aim of this paper is to investigate the flexural vibrations of an axially moving robotic arm sliding through a prismatic joint while the joint is undergoing both vertical translation and rotary motion. Cons idering not only Euler-Bernoulli beam assumption but also the effects of gravitation, rotary inertia and axial force, the equations of motio n and associated boundary conditions of the dynamic model are derived by using the extended Hamilton's principle. Since they form a complex boundary value problem which cannot be solved analytically, the assume d modes method is utilized to obtain an approximate solution. Simulati on results are presented for some typical kinematical inputs. Copyrigh t (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd.