In many cases of automatic mechanisms which do the point to point motion (i.e., industrial robots, etc.), reduction of the residual vibrations at the end point of robot arm (end effector) just after a given movement is directly related to the quality of the system. The remedies for these residual vibration phenomena can be classified into two groups, i.e., electrical active feed-back control and mechanical damping treatment. While the former is generally taken as more effective, the latter still has its own advantages, for example, in the aspect of cost, or in cases that the installation of sensors and control system is physically difficult because of limited space or motor characteristics.
The aim of this study is to develop a methodology that can give effective procedures for designing a 1-DOF viscoelastic damper which can suppress vibration in two directions using the property of viscoelastic material (rubber) that vary with the geometric dimensions, and to show the effects of viscoelastic damper applied to the reduction of residual vibration in an industrial robot.
