Controller Design for Flexible Joint of Industrial Robots: Part 2 - Vibration Suppression Control and Gain-Scheduling

Abstract

Increasing requirements for the high quality of industrial robot performance made the vibration control issue very important because the vibration makes it difficult to achieve quick response of robot motion and may bring mechanical damage to the robot. This paper presents a vibration control solution for industrial robots which have flexible joints. The joint flexibility is modeled as a two-mass system. And we analyze the vibration problem of a classical P-PI controller when it used for the flexible joints of industrial robots. Then a state feedback controller is designed for vibration suppression of the two-mass system. Finally, a gain-scheduling method is designed for maintaining control performance in spite of the time-varying nature of each joint's load side inertia. Simulation and experimental results show effective vibration suppression and uniform properties in overshoot in spite of the variation of load. The result of this study can be applied to the appropriate gain manipulation of many other mechatronic devices which have the two-mass system with varying load side inertia.