Vibration reduction by predictive evolutionary trajectory shaping

A method for reducing the tracking error due to motion induced vibrations for flexible robots is presented. In order to improve the performances of a feedback controller, the shaping of the reference trajectory is carried out by means of a predictive control scheme, where the online optimization is executed by an evolutionary algorithm. The addition of the feedback estimation error improves the reliability of the prediction, ensuring an adequate robustness despite of uncertainties. The method has been successfully applied by simulation to the tracking error reduction of a flexible link; the computation complexity revealed by simulations allows easy real time implementation.