On the trajectory planning of a planar elastic manipulator under gravity

Feedforward control design of flexible robot can take advantage of planning algorithm. In this paper two such algorithms have been presented, one for static case and the other for dynamic case. Both the algorithms are iterative in nature and are computationally based on the minimization of position or tracking error defined at the end-effector level. The algorithms are simple but computationally expensive. The performance is tested on a planar two-link arm through simulation and the results show the capability of the methods to compensate error due to deflection of the flexible links at the time of static condition of positioning and to track a given trajectory effectively at the time of dynamic condition of tracking under end kinematic constraints.