Attitude Determination and Motion Planning of Robotic Architecture in View of Its Structural Strength

Abstract

In this paper, we describe a new way of attitude determination and motion planning of robotic architecture avoiding structural failure by restraining total strain energy stored in the architecture. In the proposed motion-planning algorithm, when the risk of member yielding becomes higher while the robot is in motion, a safer attitude for restraining its total strain energy is searched. At the next step, a new trajectory is created, beginning with the obtained attitude, and ends with the final target which is initially given. The procedure is repeated until a converged attitude is obtained. Risk for member yielding and total strain energy are calculated by using the Finite Element Method (FEM), and an attitude for restraining total strain energy is searched by using the Direct Search Method (DSM) . Some numerical tests are carried out with a truss-type robotic architecture and a 3-link manipulator, and interesting results are obtained by changing the judgment and target levels of structural parameters.