Dynamics and Control of Vertical-Plane Motion for an Electrohydraulically Actuated Single-Flexible-Link Arm

Abstract

A research tool was developed for the dynamics and control of a single-flexible-link arm based on the Equivalent Rigid Link System (ERLS) dynamic model and the inverse dynamics of the arm and the actuator. The arm moved in a vertical plane and was actuated by an electrohydraulic motor. The required torque was computed based on the inverse dynamics of the ERLS model. The driving current was then predicted by the inverse actuator dynamics. This paper also presents a 16-bit microcomputer-based low-cost implementation of a nonlinear motion tracking control. The dynamic behavior of the control system was studied through the computer simulation and the experiment. Furthermore, the superiority of the flexible-body control was also proved through the comparison to the rigid-body control.