Minimum-time feedback control of robotic manipulators

Efficient robot motions often involve control saturation. The method of neighboring optimal control is used to design a feedback scheme which takes this characteristic into account. It requires precomputation of control gain along the nominal path. Feedback mechanization involves updating the switching times based on the available measurements of deviation of the robot from its nominal path. The feedback scheme is also extended to perturbing the switching times to account for small changes in the tip-mass. An online parameter identification scheme is adopted to determine this change