A method is presented for generating the path which significantly reduces residual vibration of a flexible robot manipulator and applying control theory to track the desired path. The desired path is optimally designed so that the system completes the required move with minimum residual vibration. A closed loop control theory is applied to track the planned path in the case of load variation. Specifically, it is desired that the optimally designed path has a better trajectory tracking capabilities during the residual vibration over the cycloidal path, in various cases of load. Perturbation adaptive control is used as closed loop control scheme. A planar two link manipulator is used to evaluate this method.