Smooth and Time-Optimal Trajectory Planning for Industrial Manipulators Along Specified Paths

Abstract

Abstract This paper presents a method for determining smooth and time-optimal path-constrained trajectories for robotic manipulators. The desired smoothness of the trajectory is imposed through limits on the actuator jerks. The third derivative of the path parameter with respect to time, the pseudo-jerk, is the controlled input. The limits on the actuator torques translate into state-dependent limits on the pseudo-acceleration. The time-optimal control objective is cast as an optimization problem by using cubic splines to parameterize the state space trajectory. The optimization problem is solved using the flexible tolerance method.