A Hierarchical Structure Control Strategy Based on MPC for a Six-DOF Flexible Joint Manipulator

The six-degree-of-freedom flexible joint manipulator is a complex system that suffers from the problem that the trajectory planning results are inconsistent with the control results. To keep the planned trajectory within the control range of the manipulator, a hierarchical structure control strategy is designed, which consists of a trajectory planning layer, a model predictive control layer, and a bottom control layer. Specifically, first, the target joint angles are obtained by a time-optimal trajectory planning algorithm based on a genetic algorithm in the trajectory planning layer. Second, in the model predictive control layer, considering the system physical constraints, the model predictive controller is adopted to provide the set points for the Proportion-Differentiation (PD) controllers. Finally, in the bottom control layer, the manipulator moves along the target trajectory under the PD controllers with the feedback control law. The simulation results show that, compared with the PD control strategy, the hierarchical structure control strategy can achieve better control performance and reduce the tracking error of the terminal trajectory by 33.70%.