Kinematic Control Level

As pointed out in Section 1.2, the tasks for which robots are applied in industry and other fields are of very diverse complexity. The more complex the task a robot has to perform and the more strict the requirements for its performing, the more complex should be the control system of the robot. The complexity of the robot control also depends, as it will be shown in Chapter 4, on the robot’s mechanical structure, i.e. on the extent and mode the motion of one joint (mechanical degree of freedom) of the robot influences the other joint. Because of that, different “types” of control systems appear in practice, which in different ways solve the problems at both tactical and executive level and enable accomplishment of tasks of different class. As will be shown below, the “types” of control are most often related to different classes of tasks in robotics, which, on the other hand, have different requirements toward the executive control level. This chapter deals with the problems concerning the tactical control level, while the subject of the coming chapters will be the synthesis of control at the executive level.