Present trends in the dynamics and control of flexible manipulators

In this chapter we review the current research in the dynamics and control of flexible manipulators. We start, however, by looking at the closely related work in flexible space structures. It is clear that this field has made significant contributions to the study of flexible manipulators, particularly in the area of modal modelling. However, while there is considerable overlap between work in this area and in flexible manipulators, there are also fundamental differences making flexible manipulators a distinct area of research. These differences are highlighted as they appear.