Integrated distributed sensing and active vibration suppression of flexible manipulators using distributed piezoelectrics

Structural oscillation of flexible robot manipulators would severely hamper their operation accuracy and precision. This article presents an integrated distributed sensor and active distributed vibration actuator design for elastic or flexible robot structures. The proposed distributed sensor and actuator is a layer, or multilayer of piezoelectric material directly attached on the flexible component needed to be monitored and controlled. The integrated piezoelectric sensor/actuator can monitor the oscillation as well as actively and directly constrain the undesirable oscillation of the flexible robot manipulators by direct/converse piezoelectric effects, respectively. A general theory on the distributed sensing and active vibration control using the piezoelectric elements is first proposed. An equivalent finite element formulation is also developed. A physical model with distributed sensor/actuator is tested in laboratory; and a finite element model with the piezoelectric actuator is simulated. The distributed sensing and control effectiveness are studied.