This book introduces an unified function approximation approach to the control of uncertain robot manipulators containing general uncertainties. It works for free space tracking control as well as compliant motion control. It is applicable to the rigid robot and the flexible joint robot. Even with actuator dynamics, the unified approach is still feasible. All these features make the book stand out from other existing publications.

The robotic mechanism and its controller make a complete system. As the robotic mechanism is reconfigured, the control system has to be adapted accordingly. The need for the reconfiguration usually arises from the changing functional requirements. This book will focus on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators to address the changed conditions. The aim of the book is to summarise and introduce the state-of-the-art technologies in the field of adaptive control of robotic manipulators in order to improve the methodologies on the adaptive control of robotic manipulators. Advances made in the past decades are described in the book, including adaptive control theories and design, and application of adaptive control to robotic manipulators.

This book is an essential guide to nonlinear dynamics and vibration control, detailing both the theory and the practical industrial applications within all aspects of engineering. Demonstrating how to improve efficiency through reducing unwanted vibration, it will aid both students and engineers in practically and safely improving flexible structures through control methods. Increasing demand for light-weight robotic systems and space applications has actuated the design and construction of more flexible structures. These flexible structures, involving numerous dynamic systems, experience unwanted vibrations, impacting accuracy, operating speed, safety and, importantly, efficiency. This book aids engineers in assuaging this issue through vibration control methods, including nonlinear dynamics. It covers topics such as dynamic modeling of nonlinear system, nonlinear oscillators, and modal analyses of multiple-mode system. It also looks at vibration control methods including linear control, nonlinear control, intelligent control, and command smoothers. These control methods are effective and reliable methods to counteract unwanted vibrations. The book is practically minded, using industrial applications throughout, such as bridge cranes, tower cranes, aerial cranes and liquid sloshing. It also discusses cable-suspension structures, light-weight links, and fluid motions which exhibit flexible-structure dynamics. The book will be of interest to students and engineers alike, in the field of mechatronics, mechanical systems and signal processing, nonlinear dynamics, vibration, and control engineering.

Various modelling and control of two-link flexible manipulators are presented in this book. The lumped parameter modelling method and the assumed modes method modelling are comprehensively reviewed. The book also reviews the trajectory tracking problem and tip trajectory tracking problem along with the suppression of tip deflection of the links. An exponential time varying signal and a chaotic signal are considered as the desired trajectories. The identical/ non-identical slave manipulator is synchronised with the controlled master manipulator so that the slave manipulator indirectly follows the desired manipulator.

Various modelling and control of two-link flexible manipulators are presented in this book. The lumped parameter modelling method and the assumed modes method modelling are comprehensively reviewed. The book also reviews the trajectory tracking problem and tip trajectory tracking problem along with the suppression of tip deflection of the links. An exponential time varying signal and a chaotic signal are considered as the desired trajectories. The identical/ non-identical slave manipulator is synchronised with the controlled master manipulator so that the slave manipulator indirectly follows the desired manipulator.

This book presents iterative learning control (ILC) to address practical issues of flexible structures. It is divided into four parts: Part I provides a general introduction to ILC and flexible structures, while Part II proposes various types of ILC for simple flexible structures to address issues such as vibration, input saturation, input dead-zone, input backlash, external disturbances, and trajectory tracking. It also includes simple partial differential equations to deal with the common problems of flexible structures. Part III discusses the design of ILC for flexible micro aerial vehicles and two-link manipulators, and lastly, Part IV offers a summary of the topics covered. Unlike most of the literature on ILC, which focuses on ordinary differential equation systems, this book explores distributed parameter systems, which are comparatively less stabilized through ILC.Including a comprehensive introduction to ILC of flexible structures, it also examines novel approaches used in ILC to address input constraints and disturbance rejection. This book is intended for researchers, graduate students and engineers in various fields, such as flexible structures, external disturbances, nonlinear inputs and tracking control.