Abstract: Harmonic drives are a type of gear mechanisms that are very popular for use in robots due to their compact size, light weight, high ratio torque transmission and almost zero backlash, high precision, smooth running, and low noise. However, harmonic drive systems suffer from high flexibility, resonance vibration, friction and structural damping non linearity, which will lead to vibration and decrease the tracking accuracy of the load side of the system. We build up a model for the system including the motor inertia, and analysize the dynamic characteristics of the harmonic drive. From the sufficient experiments' study we can see the dynamic characteristics of the harmonic drive system, and the relevant control strategies are suitable for to solving the problems and improving the performance. Experimental results based the scheme are presented to demonstrate its efficiency.