LAUSR

Abstract Lighter manipulators are used due to reducing power consumption and reaching higher speeds for applications. Composite manipulators can be more desirable for this purpose because they are light weight and have high strength. As it is well known that using flexible manipulators causes high amplitude vibrations and this affects the accuracy of end-point positioning. In this study, a single-link flexible glass fabric reinforced epoxy-glass composite manipulator is analyzed in ANSYS and the residual vibrations are controlled with a new method. The finite element vibration analysis is performed and an experimental system is introduced to verify simulation results. [0/90] lay-up and two different velocity profiles are studied for different case studies. An exponential-harmonic velocity excitation is applied after the end of the trapezoidal velocity profile to control the residual vibrations. It is known that the vibration amplitudes of a system decrease when the system is excited at higher frequency than the natural frequencies. The effect of the amplitude, frequency, the duration of the application and the exponential decay factor on the suppression of the residual vibration are analyzed. Both simulation and experimental analyses are performed and the results are in good agreement. It is concluded that the residual vibration amplitudes of the flexible composite manipulator are suppressed with the proposed method up to 99% for all velocity inputs.