Time-optimal control for robotic manipulators

Optimal control methods present an efficient approach to construct controls of robotic manipulators. Much recent research has been devoted to different problems of optimal control for industrial robots. In this paper we give a brief survey of work done in this field and present some new results on optimization of robotic motions. Manipulation robots governed by electromechanical drives are considered. We obtain open-loop and feedback time-optimal controls for robotic motions using both analytical and numerical methods. The results show that optimal controls can lead to a considerable improvement in the time taken for transport operations performed by robots.