DYNAMIC MODELING AND SIMULATION OF FLEXIBLE ROBOTS BASED ON DIFFERENT DISCRETIZATION METHODS

Dynamic modeling and simulation of flexible robots based on different discretization methods are investigated in this paper. Firstly, the physical model of flexible robots consisting of n links and n revolute joints is established. Secondly, the assumed mode method, finite element method, Bezier interpolation method and B-spline interpolation method are used to describe the deformation of the flexible link. Then, kinematics of both rotary-joint motion and link deformation is described by 4×4 homogenous transformation matrices, and the Lagrangian equations are used to derive the governing equations of motion of the system. The longitudinal deformation and the transverse deformation of the flexible link are considered, and the coupling term of the deformation which is caused by the transverse deformation is included in the total longitudinal deformation. Then, a software package for the dynamic simulation of the flexible robots based on the different discretization methods is developed, after that, the dynamic analysis for flexible robots are studied by three examples. The simulation results show that the computational efficiency of finite element method is the lowest, and the Bezier interpolation method and B-spline interpolation method are better than the assumed mode method in dealing with the large deformation dynamic problem. As new discretization methods, Bezier interpolation method and B-spline interpolation method can be used to describe the deformation of the flexible link, and they can be extended to the dynamic modeling for spatial flexible robots.