Adaptive control of electric motors with a flexible load

This paper presents a novel adaptive control scheme of a lightweight manipulator arm governed by electric motors. The controller design is based on the dynamic model of the manipulator in a quasi-static approximation and motor equations corrected for the elastic compliance of the plant. A passivity property of the flexible electromechanical system is established and an adaptive motor controller is developed which contains the rigid manipulator controller as a part. Simulation results for a single-link elastic arm confirm the validity and demonstrate advantages of the proposed method.