See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/4239340

Causal inversion of a single-link flexible-link

manipulator via output planning
CONFERENCE PAPER JANUARY 2005
DOI: 10.1109/ICMA.2005.1626576 Source: IEEE Xplore

CITATIONS

3 AUTHORS, INCLUDING:
M. Vakil

R. Fotouhi

University of Saskatchewan

University of Saskatchewan

27 PUBLICATIONS 64 CITATIONS

31 PUBLICATIONS 101 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

SEE PROFILE

Available from: M. Vakil

Retrieved on: 25 August 2015

Proceedings of the IEEE

International Conference on Mechatronics & Automation
Niagara Falls, Canada July 2005

Causal Inversion of a Single-Link Flexible-Link

Manipulator via Output Planning
M Vakil, R. Fotouhi, P. N. Nikiforuk
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, S7N 5A9
{mov955@mail., reza.fotouhi@, peter.nikiforuk@}usask.ca
applicable if the equations which represent the forward
dynamic are hyperbolic. For a linear system, the hyperbolic
characteristic of these equations equal to the non-existing
purely imaginary zeros for the transfer function of the forward
system.
Recently, a method was introduced by Bensoman and Le
Vey [1] that starts from any initial conditions for the inverse
equation of a SFLM and searches for the proper desired output
that leads to the stable inversion of a SFLM. The desired
output, however, is a polynomial of a specific order. This
method is applicable for the stable inversion of both
hyperbolic and non-hyperbolic systems.
In this paper the method used in [1] is extended to the
case where the desired output is a combination of several
exponential functions, rather than a polynomial function,
which makes the inverse system stable. The number of the
exponential functions used to construct the desired output is
equal to the order of the polynomial used in [1]. Further, while
the method in [1] results in just one polynomial function for
the output, our proposed method produces a family of
answers. Our method, therefore, achieves the same goals that
are presented in [1] but with additional features. In our
proposed method, and also the method presented in [1], the
desired output is planned; the only constraints that are
imposed are on initial and final values and the derivatives of
the end-effectors trajectory. In general, however, it is more
desirable to give the desired end-effectors trajectory rather
than planning it. Due to the variety of choices available for the
desired trajectory, the designer has wider choices to choose
the trajectory closer to the required one.

Abstract - Recently, a method was introduced by Bensoman

and Le Vey [1] for the stable inversion of a single-input singleoutput (SISO) non-minimum phase system through the
employment of output planning. The use of a causal input via
output planning permits the initial conditions to be freely
selected. In the application of this method to a single-link flexiblelink manipulator (SFLM), for any initial conditions a polynomial
is sought for the end-effectors trajectory that cancels the effects
of the internal instability of the inverse system. A drawback of
this method, however, is that allows for the development of only
one polynomial for any initial conditions imposed on the input
and output. An extension of this method is proposed in this paper
which does not suffer from this drawback. This extension
employs exponential functions to define the end-effectors
trajectory, which leads not to just one solution, but to a family of
solutions. The results of some simulation studies that verify the
proposed extension are included.
Index Terms Output planning, flexible link manipulator

I. INTRODUCTION
Because of their potential application in a wide range of
operation, flexible-link manipulators have been widely studied
over a number of years. Many of these studies have been on
the end-effectors trajectory planning [1, 3, 4, 5].
One possibility for the end-effectors trajectory tracking is
adopting the regulation method introduced in [2]. The
feasibility of applying this method to flexible-link
manipulators is studied in [3].
Another alternative for the end-effectors trajectory
tracking is to create a feedforward control command by using
the inversion of the system dynamic. Inversion of a minimum
phase system, such as end-effectors motion of rigid-link
manipulators, is done very easily. Contrary to rigid-link
manipulators the end-effectors trajectory tracking of flexiblelink manipulators has non-minimum phase characteristics.
Thus, the causal stable inversion of the dynamic equation of
flexible-link manipulators having a desired trajectory for the
end-effector is not achievable. To force the end-effector of a
SFLM to follow a specific path, the required bounded torque
is obtained by the non-causal inversion of the equation of
motion in the frequency domain [4]. Using Laplace
transformation, Kwon and Book [5] solved the same problem
of end-effectors trajectory inversion for a SFLM. The
methods introduced in [4, 5] find the proper initial conditions
for the inverse system so that the result of the inverse system
becomes bounded. Moreover, these inversion procedures are

0-7803-9044-X/05/$20.00 2005 IEEE

II. MATHEMATICAL ASPECTS

For a flexible-link manipulator u is the input torque and y
is the end-effectors position. In the inverse system, which we
are dealing with, y is the input, referred to as desired output,
and u is the calculated output.
For a single-input single-output (SISO), linear-timeinvariant (LTI) system, the dynamic equation can be written
as:
Au = By
(1)
where
A=

D
i=0

376

ai

(2)

B=

u py = ze mt

(3)

bi

where

i=0

d
(4)
( dt ) i
a i ( i = 0 ,1, 2 .. p ) and b i ( i = 0 ,1, 2 ..h ) are real constants.
Let y d be the desired output to be tracked. The
Di =

z=k

c e

ri t

given above. The number of ks to be calculated must be equal

to the number of constrained equations.
Consider that the following initial and final conditions are
imposed on y:
y (t i ) = y i 0 , y 1 (t i ) = y i1 , y 2 (t i ) = y i 2 ....., y q 1 (t i ) = y iq 1

(7)

y (t f ) = y f 0 , y 1 (t f ) = y f 1 , y 2 (t f ) = y f 2 ...., y n 1 (t f ) = y fn 1
(13)
i
d
y
where t i and t f are the initial and final times, y i =
, with
dt i
q-1 and n-1 being the highest order of derivatives of y that
have to be satisfied at t i and t f , respectively. It is worth

Therefore, they will also be considered as unstable roots.

Adding the particular solution, u p , of Eq.1 to the

mentioning that in the forward system, to have a unique

solution for y , the number of initial conditions imposed on y
have to be equal to the order of the forward differential
equation (i.e. q-1 = h).
In addition to the above conditions on y consider the
following initial conditions that have to be satisfied on u
u (ti ) = ui 0 , u1 (t i ) = ui1 , u 2 (ti ) = ui 2 ....., u w1 (ti ) = uiw1 (14)

complementary solution, u c , the general solution, u , is:

(8)

The coefficients c i in Eq.7 are found from the initial

conditions imposed on u.

i
where t i is the initial time, u i = d u , with w-1 being the
dt i
highest order of derivative of u that has to be satisfied at t i . It

III. STABLE EXPONENTIAL OUTPUT PLANNING

In this section the stable inversion of Eq.1 via output
planning will be explained. It will be shown, while satisfying
the required initial and final conditions imposed on y and also
initial conditions imposed on u, it is possible to plan the
desired output so that u c do not have unstable parts (The

is worth mentioning that in the inverse system, to have a

unique solution for u, the number of initial conditions on u
have to be equal to the order of the inverse systems
differential equation (i.e. w-1 = p).
Having the desired initial and final conditions imposed on
y and u and also the number of unstable roots of the
characteristic equation of (2), A(r) = 0, the required number of
exponential functions is calculated. If g is the required
number of exponential functions, then g is (details are given at
the appendix):
g = q + n + w +e p
(15)
where e is the number of unstable roots of the characteristic
equation of (2), A(r) = 0, w is the number of initial conditions
on u, q is the number of initial conditions on y, n is the number
of final conditions on y, and p is the number of unknown
coefficients of u c .
Remark 2: The unstable roots of the characteristic equation of
(2), A(r) = 0, may be pure imaginary roots or complex roots
with positive real parts. While the non-causal integration is not
applicable for purely imaginary roots, the method presented

values of c i that correspond to unstable roots ri become

zeros). It is assumed that the desired output is a combination
of exponential functions:
g

k i e mi t

Remark 1: m in Eq.10 can be any negative number except the

negative roots of the characteristic equations A(m)=0, B(m)=0
of (2) and (3) (i.e. A(m) 0, B (m) 0 ), in which case the
value of z will be zero or infinity.
Since m is a given known negative real number, k is
calculated to satisfy the triple conditions imposed on k i as

where ri are the roots of the characteristic equation of (6),

A(r) = 0. If Eq.1 represents a non-minimum phase dynamic
system, some ri will have positive real values that result in
unstable response of the system. The purely imaginary roots
ri will result in non-vanishing oscillatory responses.

yd =

a m

(12)

i =1

u = u p + uc

i=0
p

i=0

(6)
Au c = 0
Since the coefficients of the differential operator A are
constant, the complementary solution is:
p

b m
i

feedforward control torque, u, the calculated output, is

obtained by solving the following differential equation:
(5)
Au = By d
The solution u consists of the complementary solution of the
following homogenous ODE (Eq.6) and particular solution
of Au p = By d .

uc =

(11)

(9)

i =1

in which m i are negative real constants. The value of

contribution of each exponential function ( k i ) in constructing
the desired output will be chosen such that:
1- The unstable response of the u is not excited (i.e.,
positive and purely imaginary roots of Au c = 0 )
2- The initial conditions on u are satisfied
3- The initial and final conditions on y d are satisfied
For a single exponential function, for a desired output
(10)
y = ke mt
the particular solution of u is:

377

EI : Links rigidity
: Mass per unit length
Kh : Hobs kinetic energy
Ktp : Tip-masss kinetic energy
Using the Lagrangian approach, the dynamic equation of
the motion for the SFLM is obtained as:
 + K d = F
(20)
Md
where, d is the vector of DOF, composed of the rigid
coordinate ( ) and the flexible coordinates ( i ) . F is the
input control vector which includes the input torque u. M and
K are the mass and stiffness matrices, respectively. It is to be
noted that the derivation of this linear dynamic model is based
on the fact that in the kinetic energy the quadratic terms of the
deformation is negligible [8].
Since Eq.20 is linear, the state space representation of Eq.
20 for the output y, using the first two mode shapes of the arm,
is:
z = A2 z + B 2 F
(21)

here is applicable.
Remark 3: It is clear that the m i in Eq. 9 is decided at the
beginning of the procedure. They can be any negative
numbers except the negative roots of the characteristic
equations A(m)=0 and B(m)=0 of (2) and (3). Therefore, the
inversion method presented here via output planning results in
a family of solutions rather than just one polynomial solution
as given by [1].
Having calculated the number of exponential functions
from Eq. 15, the unknowns (k in Eq.10, z in Eq.11 and c in
Eq.7) are found by solving a set of simultaneous linear
algebraic equations.
IV. SFLM STABLE INVERSION THROUGH OUTPUT
PLANNING
In this section the stable inversion of a SFLM by output
planning will be examined. The dynamic model from [1] is
used for simulation. Due to finite wave propagation in elastic
media there is a time delay between actuation and sensing if
the actuator and sensor are non-collocated. In a linear model,
this delay is represented by a zero at the right hand side of the
S-plane. Because of the existence of such positive zeros the
linear system is non-minimum phase. Usually for a flexiblelink manipulator, the input is the torque at the base and the
desired output is the end-effectors position. Thus, the relation
between the input (torque) and the output (end-effectors
position) has a non-minimum phase characteristic. The
dynamics of the flexible-link manipulator is of infinitedimension. Usually a truncated dynamic model based on the
assumed mode shape method (AMM) [5], or finite element
method (FEM) [6], is used to control the motion of a flexiblelink manipulator. Use of the AMM for trajectory tracking of a
flexible-link manipulator at the joint space is studied in [7]. In
this paper the dynamic modeling based on the AMM is also
used.
The lateral displacement of a point at a distance x from the
base as in Fig. 1, is obtained as the sum of rigid body rotation
( ) and the small deflection ( ):
(16)
= x +
It is assumed that (lateral displacement of point x in
flexible-link manipulator measured from rotated rigid-link
manipulator) is small and given by:

( x) i

y = C2z

C 2 = [L

0]

d

d = [

0
B 2 = 1
M
L = [L

2 ]

1 ( L ) 2 ( L )]
F = [u

0]

where y is the end-effectors position and u is the input torque.

(17)

Fig. 1 Schematic of a SFLM

Having the linear dynamic instead of non-causal inversion

[4, 5], causal inversion by output planning will now be
employed. Some combinations of exponential functions are
considered for the end-effectors trajectory. The physical
properties of the link used in simulation after [1] are:
L = 1 . 005 ( m )

where i is any kinematically admissible function (usually i

is chosen as the mode shapes of the free vibration of the
clamped-free beam) and i are scalar weight functions.
The kinetic (Ke) and potential (Pe) energies of the link in
the horizontal plane are:

I h = 1 . 8 10 3 ( kg .m 2 )

1
d
Ke = ( dx) + Kh + Ktp
2 L dt

I
0

z = d
T

i =1

d 2
1
Pe = EI 2 dx
2 L dx

A2 =
1
M
K

(18)

= 2 . 0316 ( kg / m )
EI = 47 . 25 ( N .m )
2

(19)

m t = 6 . 79 kg
I t = 4 . 742 10 2 ( kg .m 2 )

where

378

(22)

The first and second natural frequencies of such clampedfree beam are f 1 = 6 . 03 Hz and f 2 = 16 . 07 Hz as noted in
[1]. The transfer function which relates the desired endeffectors position y and the input torque u is [1]:
y
.295 s 4 + 98 .736 s 2 + 3331956 .636
(23)
=
u s 2 (s 4 + 19015 .243 s 2 + 25179356 .808 )
This transfer function is obtained assuming two mode shapes
and using physical parameters given in (22). The transfer
functions zeros are:
z 1, 2 = 59 . 4
(24)

z
=

56
.
5
i
3
,
4

this value was chosen as the starting point for choosing other
mi values.

Since there was no damping consideration in the singlelink flexible-link manipulator presented in [1], there exist
purely imaginary zeros. While the existence of pure imaginary
zeros is a barrier in application of the non-causal integration
method introduced in [4, 5], our method can handle the
existence of pure imaginary zeros. To determine the number
of exponential functions that must be used for output planning
consider that the following initial conditions are imposed on y
and u and their derivatives and also the following final
conditions are imposed on y and its derivatives:
y ( 0 ) = y 1 ( 0 ) = y 2 ( 0 ) = y 3 ( 0 ) = y 4 ( 0 ) = y 5 ( 0 ) = 0 (25)
(26)
u (0 ) = u 1 (0 ) = u 2 (0) = u 3 (0) = 0
and
y (10 ) = 1 . 57
(27)
y 1 (10 ) = y 2 (10 ) = 0
To find the output y in the time domain from the transfer
function given in Eq.23 zero initial conditions on y and its first
five derivatives (Eq.25) and zero initial conditions on u and its
first three derivatives (Eq.26) are assumed. It is also assumed
that the duration of motion is 10 seconds (t f = 10) . To find the

Fig.2 End-effectors displacement for the first set of

number of stable exponential functions the method described

in Section III with the details in Appendix is used. The
number of equations that must be satisfied because of the
initial and final conditions imposed on y is q + n = 6 + 3 = 9.
The number of equations that must be satisfied because of the
initial conditions imposed on u is w = 4. The number of
unknowns in the complementary answer of u is p = 4, and the
number of unstable roots of the characteristic equation of
A(r)=0 is e = 3 (2 imaginary, 1 positive roots).
Using Eq.15, the number of the exponential functions that
must be used for output planning is:
g = 6 + 3 + 4 + 3 - 4 = 12
So:
y=

12

k i e mit

Fig.3 Required torque for the first set of

mi

mi

The first set of the mi were chosen as:

[m1 ...m12 ] = [ .2,.4,.6,.8,1.,1.2,1.4,1.6,1.8,2,
2.2,2.4]

The end-effectors displacement and input torque for this set

of m i are shown in Fig. 2 and Fig. 3, respectively.
The second set of mi were chosen as:
[m1....m12 ] = [.22,.44,.66,.88,1.1,1.32,1.54,1.76,
1.98,2.2,2.42,2.64]

(28)

For this set the displacement and the input torque are shown in
Fig. 4 and Fig. 5, respectively.

i =1

Three different sets of mi were used for the simulation

studies. The mi were not chosen totally arbitrary. They were
chosen using values corresponding to a single exponential
function, y = ke m t f ; assuming that we wish the function to be
reduced to one tenth of its initial value at the end of maneuver;
i.e., y
= 0 .1k , this produces m = . 1Ln (. 1) or m = . 23 ;
t f =10

379

Fig. 4 End-effectors displacement for the second set of

Fig. 7 Required torque for the third set of

mi

Fig. 5 Required torque for the second set of

mi

Fig. 6 End-effectors displacement for the third set of

mi

Fig. 8 End-effectors displacement for the fourth set of

mi

mi

Fig.9 Required torque for the fourth set of m i

The third set of mi were chosen as:
[m1....m12 ] = [.24,.48,.72,.96,1.2,1.44,1.68,1.92,

2.16,2.4,2.64,2.88]

380

z and k. The number of unknowns for the complementary

solution in Eq.6 is p (if the order of A in IV is 4, there is 4 c i

For this set the displacement and input torque are shown in
Fig. 6 and Fig. 7, respectively. A comparison of these three
sets indicated the dependence of the required torque and the
end-effectors displacement on the values of the mi . Since no

in Eq.7, thus p
on the number
desired output
function, k i in

overshoot in the tip-displacement is desired, the first set of mi

is considered to be the best. Decreasing the values of the mi
causes overshoots in end-effectors response. Also some
values of mi resulted in a response that did not satisfy the

is equal to 4). The number of unknowns based

of exponential functions used for planning the
is 2g. The contribution of each exponential
Eq. 9 is unknown. Also z, in Eq.11 for each

u py is unknown. Thus there are 2g unknowns. The total

number of unknowns is p + 2g - e (e.g. 4 + 2g - 3 in IV). The
total number of available equations is q + n + w + g (e.g. 6 + 3
+ 4 + g in IV).
Remark 4: To eliminate the unstable part of u c (positive or
purely imaginary roots of A) the coefficient c i related to the

required initial condition. This clearly shows that not all

possible combinations of mi are satisfactory. For example for
a fourth set of mi as:
[m1......m12 ] = [.1,.2,.3,.4,.5,.6,.7,.8,.9,1,1.1,1.2]
The end-effectors displacement and required torque are
shown in Fig. 8 and Fig. 9. It can be seen that this set violate
initial conditions on u and y. To find the contribution of each
exponential function a set of linear algebraic equations must
be solved. If these equations are not linearly independent then
determinant of the coefficient matrix becomes zero, which
results in an unacceptable response (the fourth set is an
example).

unstable parts has to be zero. If the number of these unstable

poles is e, e out of p of the coefficients of c i must be zero.
Then the number of unknowns is p + 2g - e (e.g. 4 + 2g 3 in
IV). Thus g, the number of exponential functions that must be
used in planning the desired output is obtained as:
(A1)
g =q+n+w+e p
(e.g, g = 6 + 3 + 4 + 3 - 4 = 12 in IV).
The desired output is then of the form y d =

V. CONCLUSION

k e

mit

i =1

Recently in [1] the causal inversion of SISO LTI systems

via output planning was studied. The planned desired output
was a polynomial. In the method presented in this paper the
planned desired output is a combination of exponential
functions. Unlike the method presented in [1], which creates
only one polynomial function for the given initial and final
conditions, the method presented here leads to a family of
exponential functions. Thus the planned desired output is
chosen from a family of solutions.
The method presented here and also that of [1] create a
desired output that only satisfies given initial and final
conditions. Generally, it is desirable to give the desired output
rather than planning it. Due to the variety, which is given by
our method, in choosing the planned output, the designer is
free to select the desired output.
Comparing the method presented here and that in [1], it
can be shown that the planned output can be a combination of
the polynomial function presented in [1] and the exponential
functions presented here.

REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

APPENDIX
CALCULATING THE NUMBER OF EXPONENTIAL
FUNCTIONS USED IN PLANNING DESIRED OUTPUT

[8]

Consider that the number of unstable roots (positive plus

purely imaginary) of the characteristic equation of A(r)=0 is
equal to e (e.g e = 3 in IV). Let the required number of
exponential functions be g. The number of initial and final
conditions imposed on y, (Eq.13) is q + n (e.g. q+n=6+3=9 in
IV). The number of initial conditions imposed on u, (Eq.14) is
w (e.g. w=4 in IV). According to Eq.12 there is a linear
relation between the coefficients of u py in Eq.11 and the

[9]

corresponding y in Eq.10. Therefore, if the required number of

exponential function is g, there are g relations between all the

381

M. Benosman and G. Le Vey, Stable inversion of SISO nonminimum

phase system through output planning : An experimental application to
the one-link flexible manipulator, IEEE Transactions on Control System
Technology, Vol. 3, No. 4, July 2003, pp. 588-597
A. Isidori and C. Byrnes, Output regulation of nonlinear system, IEEE
Transactions on Automation and Control, Vol. 35, Feb 1990, pp. 131140.
A. De Luca , L. Lanari, and G. Ulivi, End-effector trajectory tracking in
flexible arms. Comparison of approaches based on regulation theory,
Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, Vol. 162, 1991, pp.
190-206
E. Bayo, A finite-element approach to control the end-point motion of a
single link flexible robot, International Journal of Robotics Systems, Vol.
4, No. 1, 1989, pp. 63-75.
D. S. Kwon and W. J. Book, Time-domain inverse dynamic tracking
control of a single-link flexible manipulator, Journal of Dynamic
Systems, Measurement and Control, Transactions of the ASME, Vol.
116, No. 2, June 1994, p.193-200.
Y. A. Khulief, Vibration suppression in rotating beams using active
modal control, Journal of Sound and Vibration, Vol. 242, No. 4, May
2001, pp. 681-699.
M. Vakil, R. Fotouhi and P. N. Nikiforuk, Trajectory tracking of a
single-link flexible link manipulator, the 20th Canadian Congress on
Applied Mechanics (CANCAM), Montreal, Canada, May 30-June 2,
2005.
A. De Luca and B. Siciliano, Closed-form dynamic model of planar
multilink lightweight robots, IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man and
Cybernetics, Vol. 21, No. 4, 1991, pp. 826-839.
D. Wang and M. Vidyasagar, Control of class of manipulators with a
single flexible link-Part I: feedback linearization, Journal of Dynamic
Systems, Measurement and Control, Vol. 113, Dec 1991, pp. 655-661.