Dynamic hybrid position/force control of a flexible manipulator

In this paper, a dynamic hybrid control method is proposed for constrained flexible manipulators. Based on the assumed mode method, the authors derive the dynamical equations of a constrained two-link flexible manipulator. They then divide it into a slow subsystem and a fast subsystem via a singular perturbation method. For the slow subsystem, the authors present a hybrid position/force control method based on force feedback. For the fast subsystem, they design a controller based on optimal theory. Simulation results prove the effectiveness of this method.