Computationally efficient modeling of flexible robots using the transfer matrix method

Abstract

An approach is presented for developing a computationally efficient model of robots with flexible links and joints. The approach uses the transfer matrix method, which allows continuous elements such as flexible links to be treated without spatial discretization. The small size of transfer matrices allows the analysis to be performed symbolically so that closed-form expressions can be found for the infinite-dimensional transfer functions between the robot inputs and sensor outputs. The approach is applied to a single-link robot where both the link and the joint are flexible. The computationally efficient model is used by an optimization routine to estimate unknown parameters of the robot model.