Dynamic Analysis of Flexible Manipulator Arms With Distributed Viscoelastic Damping

The main objective of this work is to predict the effect of distributed viscoelastic damping on the dynamic response of multilink flexible robot manipulators. A general approach, based on the principle of virtual work, is presented for the modeling of flexible robot arms with distributed viscoelastic damping. The finite element equations are developed, and a recurrence formulation for numerical integration of these equations is obtained. It is demonstrated, by a numerical example, that the viscoelastic damping treatments have a significant effect on the dynamic response of flexible robot manipulators.