Control of a Manipulator with Elastic Base Moving on Unknown Path

Cooperation of man and machine is one of the best solutions for moving the endeffector of a manipulator on a specific path with unknown relation. In such a solution deviation from the path is assessed by operator and necessary correcting command is generated by him based on that. This navigation command is, then, used by control algorithm of manipulator to move the end-effector on the desired path. This problem gets more difficult if the base of manipulator is moving on a platform such as a cart or a large manipulator, with inherent flexibility, to achieve a large workspace. In such cases it is impossible to use a master similar to the manipulator itself. This paper presents a fuzzy navigation algorithm for moving end-effector of a manipulator mounted on a moving base. The algorithm which is based on estimation of cross track error of end-effector,generates necessary command which is used by a proposed computed-torque method algorithm to move the end-effector on the desired path. Simulation results shows versatility of the proposed methods for navigation and control of the system even in presence of disturbances due to flexibility of base.