Modelling of Flexible Manipulator System Using Flower Pollination Algorithm

The study of the flexible manipulator system (FMS) has attracted many researchers due to its superiority of light weight and faster system response. Flexible manipulator system is an improvement from its rigid structure, however it can be easily vibrated when it subjected to disturbance. If the advantages of FMS are not to be sacrificed, an accurate model and efficient control system must be developed. Thus, this study presents an approach of evolutionary swarm algorithm via flower pollination algorithm (FPA) to model the dynamic system of flexible manipulator structure. An experimental rig of flexible manipulator system was developed for input-output acquisition. Then, this input-output data was fed to system identification method to obtain a dynamic model of flexible manipulator system utilizing evolutionary algorithm with linear auto regressive with exogenous (ARX) model structure. The result obtained through flower pollination algorithm was then compared with conventional method known as least square (LS) algorithm in terms of mean square error (MSE), correlation test and pole-zero diagram. The best MSE achieved by LS modeling for endpoint acceleration and hub angle positioning are 0.0075 and 0.0028, respectively. While, the best MSE produced by flower pollination algorithm for endpoint acceleration and hub angle positioning are 0.0063 and 0.0020, respectively. It is reveals that the performance of intelligence algorithm is superior than conventional algorithm.