Cloud Model-based Controller Design for Flexible-Link Manipulators

A cloud model-based controller which needs no mathematical models of plant is presented in this paper for the trajectory tracking control of a flexible-link manipulator with poorly known dynamics. Based on the singular perturbation method and the time-scale decomposition, the flexible-link manipulator model is decomposed into a slow subsystem of an equivalent rigid-link manipulator and a fast subsystem of flexible mode. A composite adaptive controller is proposed to implement the angle position control of the slow subsystem and simultaneous suppressing the tip vibration. In the proposed control strategy, the control experience qualitatively expressed by linguistic is transformed into the control rulers using the normal cloud models. Experiment studies on the test-bed of a two-link flexible manipulator are carried out to show the robustness, viability and effectiveness of the proposed control approach