A robust distributed controller of a single-link SCARA/Cartesian smart materials robot

Abstract

In this paper, dynamic modelling and controller design are presented for a SCARA/Cartesian smart materials robot, a flexible SCARA/Cartesian robot bonded with piezoelectric actuators and sensors for better control performance. Conventionally, controller design is usually carried out for a truncated model of partial differential equations (PDEs). In this paper, a novel distributed controller is developed directly based on PDEs, which can guarantee the globally exponential stability of the closed-loop system. Taking into account of bounded disturbances, a robust distributed controller is further developed and stability proof is also given. Different from the conventional approach, truncation is introduced at the stage of the controller implementation. Stability proofs show that the proposed controller can also stabilize the finite dimensional model with arbitrary number of flexible modes. Both simulation and experiment results verify that the robust controller can achieve good performance in the suppression of residual vibrations under the environment of disturbances. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.