Sub-optimal Operating Time for Saving Energy of an Articulated Manipulator

Saving energy dissipated by the manipulators is important for improving the environment. We developed an optimal, suboptimal operating to minimize dissipated energy in PTP motion. Simplified velocity such as for parabolas and trapezoids identical to the optimal velocity are taken into consideration. Velocity functions are expanded with a time scale, and each component of dissipated energy is derived proportional to the power of expansion. Optimal expansion minimizing dissipated energy is easily obtained by solving an algebraic equation, and suboptimal operating time is determined from optimal expansion. Simulation confirmed that suboptimal operating time was similar to the optimal and that dissipated energy could be saved by selecting a suboptimal operating time.