Author(s)

H. Salmasi, R. Fotouhi & P. N. Nikiforuk

Abstract

The active vibration suppression of a single flexible link manipulator using a piezoelectric actuator is investigated. For this purpose, a finite element (FE) model is developed for the modal and transient analysis of a cantilever beam and a flexible link manipulator. A proportional control strategy is employed in a FE model to adjust the voltage applied to the piezoelectric actuator so as to control vibration. For the flexible link manipulator, it is shown that the vibration is well suppressed during and at the end of a manoeuvre by locating the piezoelectric actuator at the optimum location. The effect of the value of the controller gain on the vibration behaviour of the system is investigated and the optimum controller gain is found using two main evaluation criteria; these are contribution of dominant frequencies in response and the norms of vibration amplitudes. Keywords: vibration suppression, cantilever beam, flexible link manipulator, piezoelectric actuator. 1 Introduction Designing and utilizing robot manipulators having higher load capacities is always desired. However, vibration is an important factor that restricts the performance of such devices especially in applications where accurate positioning is very important. In the past decade different approaches have been used for vibration suppression. Active vibration control is one of the best approaches to suppress vibration. One of the methods of active control is using piezeoelectrics as actuators [1]. It is worth noting that piezoelectric is the coupling of structural and electric

Keywords

vibration suppression, cantilever beam, flexible link manipulator, piezoelectric actuator.