This paper focuses on the experimental results of the position tracking control of a flexible joint robot manipulator. The applied control strategy is based on a well know cascade control methodology that divides the robot model into two subsystems: a link and a rotor subsystem. Thanks to this division a friction compensation based on the LuGre model is performed to the mechanical system. The main goal of the present work is to apply a systematic procedure to identify the friction model parameters and to analyse the control strategy performance when implemented to a robot prototype specially built for practical tests.
Robot control; joint flexibility; friction observer; friction compensation; cascade control