Adaptive Quantized Control of Flexible Manipulators Subject to Unknown Dead Zones

This article proposes an adaptive control for a flexible manipulator (FM) under the influence of distributed disturbances, unknown dead zones, and input quantization. First, the hybrid effect of the unknown dead zone and input quantization is formulated and represented based on some essential transformations. Then, an adaptive robust quantized control with online updating laws is developed to address the uncertainty of the dead zone, ensure robustness and angle position, and dampen the vibration in the FM system. Subsequently, the Lyapunov theoretical analysis is employed to ensure the bounded stability of the system. Finally, numerical simulations and experiments with a Quanser platform are given to further verify the feasibility and superiority of the designed scheme.