Sensors & Transducers, Vol. 0, Issue 0, April 2019, pp. 1 Sensors & Transducers Published by IFSA Publishing, S. L., 2019 http://www.sensorsportal.com Vibrations and Intelligent Tracking Control of Single Link Flexible Manipulator 1, 2, * Nura Musa TAHIR, 2 Kamal Abubakar ABUBAKAR, 1 Aliyu Umar SAMBO, 3 Abdullahi Bala KUNYA, 2 Ibrahim GAMBO 1 Department of Mechatronics and System Engineering, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University (ATBU), PMB 0248, Bauchi, Nigeria 2 Department of Mechatronics and Automatic Control, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 UTM, Johor, Malaysia 3 Department of Electrical Engineering, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Nigerian (ABU), P.M.B 1045, Kaduna, Nigeria E-mail: nuratahir85@gmail.com, mtnura@atbu.edu.ng Received: 16 February 2019 /Accepted: 15 April 2019 /Published: 30 April 2019 Abstract: Residual vibrations and oscillations at the Endpoint due to flexible body motions are big challenges in control of single link flexible manipulators. This makes payloads positioning very difficult and hence less efficient and low productivity. In this paper, a hybrid intelligent control of single link flexible manipulator is proposed. Output-based filter (OBF) was designed using the signal output of the system to suppress the tip deflections and it was incorporated with both linear quadratic regulator (LQR) controller and fuzzy logic controller for set point tracking control of the system. Based on the Simulation results, it was observed that, a good tracking and significant tip deflections reduction was achieved. This was measured using the time response analysis. OBF-LQR performed better and more compatible then OBF-fuzzy. Keywords: Single link flexible manipulator, Output based, LQR, Residual vibration, Fuzzy. 1. Introduction Flexible manipulator is a machines that are mainly used for conveying items from one place to another. These kinds of machines are used for spray painting, assembling and welding in various industries, including but not limited to nuclear plants, automotive, space exploration and aerospace [1-4]. The most important advantages of flexible manipulators over their rigid counterparts are high speed, light weight, safety operation, less cost and less energy consumption [5]. Nevertheless, due to its flexibility in nature, the flexible manipulator is associated with tip deflections, which make precise positioning of payload difficult to achieve. To overcome this difficulty, several control techniques have been proposed over the years by various researchers. These include, hybrid controllers, feedback control feed-forward control and robust control etc. Feed-forward control strategy, numerous input shaping schemes for tip deflections and vibration control were presented as in [3] and their performances were assessed based on level of tip deflections reduction, time response specifications and filters robustness. A microcontroller based input shaping technique for residual vibration control has been presented in [2], and the embedded input shaping applications were propose and their performances were compared. Command shaping