Planning Real-Time Energy Efficient Trajectories for a Two Degrees of Freedom Balanced Serial Manipulator

Abstract

The recent climate crisis and energy price rises are indicators of the necessity of a paradigm shift in the way we think industry. A more sustainable manufacturing industry is needed to tackle nowadays’ challenges. Practical solutions may be either using cleaner energy sources or reducing the overall energy consumption. Efficient use of robotic systems has been identified as a promising approach, for instance re-shaping robot trajectories ensuring reduced energy consumptions without penalizing throughput at the same time. The problem is herein addressed for a particular class of manipulators, i.e. those that exhibit linear dynamics. In this case, the optimal control problem can be solved in closed form, giving the optimal solution in terms of minimum energy. The solution is obtained for a two degrees of freedom planar balanced manipulator and compared to a reference standard law. Results show a significant reduction of the energy consumption. Since the solution is obtained analytically, the computational burden allows real-time applicability.