CONTROL FOR A HYDRAULICALLY ACTUATED FLEXIBLE-PRISMATIC LINK ROBOT

Many of the long-reach manipulators we are using for nuclear waste rem ediation have hydraulic actuation and flexible prismatic links. Unfort unately, most of the research related to flexible link manipulators to date focuses on single-link, fixed-length, single-plane-of-vibration test beds, In addition, many testbeds use electromagnetic drives for a ctuation. This manuscript describes a new test bed at Oak Ridge Nation al Laboratory (ORNL) that has hydraulic actuation and a single flexibl e-prismatic link. Preliminary experiments and analysis show the effect many nonlinear characteristics have on the dynamics of commercial-gra de hydraulic systems. Next, we show how these characteristics limit co ntrol design and impact flexure control strategies. Finally, a series of experiments show the performance of standard flexure control algori thms on our flexible-prismatic test bed.