A stochastic model based tracking control scheme for flexible robot manipulators

The presence of joint elasticity or the arm flexibility causes low damped oscillatory position error along a desired trajectory. We utilize a stochastic model for describing the fast dynamics and the approximation error. A second order shaping filter is synthesized such that its spectrum matches that of the fast dynamics. Augmenting the state vector of slow part with that of shaping filter, we obtain a nonlinear dynamics to which a Gaussian white noise is injected. This modeling approach leads us to the design of an extended Kalman filter(KEF) and a linear quadratic Gaussian(LQG) control scheme. We present the simulation results of this control method. The simulation results show us that our Kalman filtering approach is one of prospective methods in controlling the flexible arms.