2000 Volume 18 Issue 1 Pages 135-141
Hyper-redundant robot arms have a very large degrees of kinematic redundancy, thus possess the unconventional features such as ability to enter a narrow space while avoiding obstacles. In this paper, a time-optimal path-tracking control scheme with considering the actuation characteristics of actuators was introduced for the Moray arm, a slider-installed hyperredundant robot arm. Therein, the used actuators were assumed to be the commonly-used DC motors and the maximum heat generated by DC motor was considered as the limit actuation characteristics of actuator. The time-optimal trajectories for tracking the path in posture space were generated with subjection of the limit-heat characteristics. Computer simulations were also performed to show that, 1) the proposed control scheme considering the limit-heat characteristics makes all output of actuators within the heat bounds and all outputs are still under the maximum power curve, 2) the required output of actuators is continuous and no pulse torques are generated, in comparison with the traditional time-optimal control schemes subjected to torques and/or velocities.
