Robust time-optimal control of robotic manipulators under payload uncertainty

This paper presents a new robust time-optimal control (TOC) strategy for robotic manipulators with payload uncertainty. This strategy, featuring combination of off-line optimization and online adaptation, determines the optimum switching time for control torques in real time according to actual system state. Simulation study has shown that this strategy can guarantee a robot arm to move always along TOC trajectory regardless of changes in payload over a wide range