ON CONTROL AND OPTIMIZATION OF ELASTIC MULTILINK MECHANISMS

This paper presents a simple method for control of nonlinear elastic m ultilink mechanisms. The associated control law consists of open and c losed loop components. The open loop component produces the desired ov erall rigid body motion, while the closed loop component suppresses th e elastic motion relative to rigid body motion. Both the control law a nd the structural dynamics are referred to an inertial coordinate syst em. As a consequence, the control forces and control moments are easil y simulated in a dynamic finite element analysis program. A series of numerical simulations illustrate the generality of this new method. (C ) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.