Contribution to the Inverse Dynamics of Flexible Manipulators

This thesis studies innovative, stable but non-causal inverse dynamics algorithms for flexible manipulators. Robust direct optimal control methods are proposed. The nonlinear finite element method is used to derive the mechanical model of the multibody system and the time discretization is performed using the generalized-alpha method. The sparse gradients of the optimization constraints are computed using a semi-analytical method. The inverse dynamics of both serial and parallel kinematic manipulators with flexible links and joints is successfully studied using the proposed method. Finally, the possible extension of the method for the integrated control/structure optimization of mechatronic systems is investigated.