ISSUES IN THE EXPERIMENTAL IMPLEMENTATION OF THE FAST TIME SCALE CONTROLLER FOR A FLEXIBLE ARM

While several theoretical results on modelling and control of flexible arms have been published in the robotics literature, comparatively less attention has been devoted to design issues related to the practical implementation of these controllers. This work describes a typical single link test bed, discussing the whole path from system identification to controller implementation in the context of two-time scale control. In particular, the design of the fast vibration controller will be addressed, as it represents the most critical part of the system, pointing out technological problems and outlining possible solutions. The discussion will be fully supported by experimental results.