Robust controller design for a single-link experimental flexible robot arm

11 ABSTRACT Master of Science Thesis ROBUST CONTROLER DESIGN FOR A SINGLE-LINK EXPERIMENTAL FLEXIBLE ROBOT ARM HAKKI ULAŞ ÜNAL Anadolu University Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Electrical and Electronics Engineering Program Supervisor: Prof. Altuğ IFTAR 2002, 168 Pages In this thesis, a flexible experimental robot arm with one end coupled to a DC servo motor axle and the other end carrying a mass, is modelled and the robust controllers are designed for this arm. The objective of the controllers is to control the position of the arm and to suppress the vibrations due to the movement of the arm in order to improve the system performance. For this objective, the position, the angular speed, and the bending in the middle of the arm are fedback. The controllers are designed using Robust Control design methods. Controller computations and simulations are performed using MATLAB package program and the designed controlles are implemented using C programs. The simulation results and the experimental results are compared. Keywords: Flexible Structures, Infinite Dimensional Systems, Robust Control, Real Time Systems