Research activity

Optimal control of robot manipulators

The objective of this research activity is to determine the trajectories of industrial robot manipulators that minimize some cost functional when moving between two or more assigned configurations avoiding possible obstacles present in the work space of the robot, and satisfying constraints on the task to carry-out, like for example operating in contact with a workpiece, applying an assigned force or to move at an assigned speed during part of the task. The goal of this research activity is to reduce the programming time of industrial robots by finding automatically those trajectories that optimize resources, like for example the energy consumed by the system. It is an important aspect since a robot repeats the same operation thousands of times per day. The animation above shows the energy-optimal swing-up maneuver of an acrobot.