Deflection compensation for large flexible manipulators

The dynamic nature of elastic deformations causes path planning for large manipulation robots to be rather a complex problem. Beyond kinematic conditions, solutions of elemental kinematic tasks must also satisfy complex dynamic equations describing the system deformations. This paper presents a complete algorithm for the trajectory synthesis of flexible robots which is intended for quasi-static compensation of position deviations caused by manipulator link elasticity. The presented approach is established on a nonlinear kinematic model which involves deformation terms of the second order. The paper includes illustrative examples of path planning for a new class of manipulator arms with long span.