Tracking control of flexible manipulators via an LMI approach

We consider the tracking problem for a robotic manipulator. First, we propose an approach which allows one to place the problem of designing an optimal control law for a rigid manipulator in the context of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) optimization; this permits one to include in the synthesis of the control law and constraints concerning the control amplitude. Then we consider flexible links manipulators, showing how the synthesis of the controller has to be modified in order to obtain good performances in presence of flexible elements.