ABSTRACT
The insatiable demand for high-performance robotic systems quantifi ed by a high speed of operation, high end-position accuracy, and lower energy consumption has triggered a vigorous research thrust in various multidisciplinary areas, such as the design and control of lightweight fl exible robot arms [1]. Most researches for fl exible manipulator are concentrated in single-link fl exible manipulators [2-4] because there are many nonlinear coupling terms between the generalized coordinates of different links in multi-link fl exible manipulators. In practice, although, there are few tasks for which a single-link arm will suffi ce, as most present industrial rigid robots are multi-link robots. There have been some researches about multi-link fl exible manipulator [5-7], but most of them are theoretical approaches. On the other hand, the control of fl exible structures utilizing smart or intelligent materials as actuators and sensors has been vigorously studied, and it has been proved effective [8,9]. Recently, some researches utilizing piezoelectric materials for fl exible manipulators have been done [10,11].
