Experimental study on robust force control of a flexible arm with a symmetric rigid tip body

In this paper, an experimental study on robust control of bending and torsional vibrations and contact force of a one-link flexible arm is discussed. The flexible arm carries a symmetric rigid tip body, of which the mass center lies on the center axis of the arm. We derive dynamic equations of the joint angle, the vibrations of the flexible link, and the contact force. On the basis of a finite-dimensional modal model of a distributed-parameter system, robust controllers are constructed. Some experimental results are shown.