Flexible robot manipulators have numerous advantages over their rigid counterparts. They have increased payload-to-weight
ratio, they run at higher speeds, use less energy and smaller actuators, and they are safer during interaction with
their environments. On the other hand, light design combined with external effects result in components which can oscillate
with excessive amplitudes. These oscillations cause deviation from the desired path and long idle periods between tasks in
order to perform the intended operation safely and accurately. This paper is on an investigation into the effectiveness of a
vibration control technique for a two-link flexible robotic arm. Variable stiffness control (VSC) technique is used to control
the excessive oscillations. Owing to its dissipative nature, the technique is stable, it is relatively insensitive to significant
parameter changes and suitable to be implemented on existing robots. This research considers that the source of the
flexibility is either the joints or the links or both. Simulation results of the response of the arm are presented to show the
versatility of the proposed control technique. Experiments are performed on a laboratory prototype and the results
are presented to test the validity of simulations.