The problem of the time-optimal turning of a manipulator

Abstract

Two types of manipulator that perform three-dimensional motions are considered, and the control problem in which the manipulator rotation is performed in minimum time is studied. The rate of rotation of a rigid body about an axis rises as the moment of inertia about this axis falls. Manipulator control amounts to a problem of the rotation of a system of rigid bodies about an axis. In addition to the angle of rotation, there is a further controlled coordinate, whose variation can vary the moment of inertia about the axis. Assuming that the moment of inertia can be stantaneously “frozen” (that pulse control signals are possible), the in-time-optimal control modes were found in /1, 2/, (see also Akulenko, L.D. et al., “Optimization of the control modes of manipulation robots”, Preprint 218, In-t. Problem Mekhaniki Akad. Nauk SSSR, Moscow 1983). In these modes, the rotation, occurs in the entire time interval with minimum moment of inertia about the axis of rotation. The rotation when there are constraints on the control (pulse control signals are not permitted) was considered in /3/. Numerical studies there led to the false conclusion that, in the optimal motion, with a finite number of control switchings, the moment of inertia is also a minimum throughout the time interval. Below, for a set of extreme configurations, a control is constructed for the two types of manipulator, which satisfies the Pontryagin maximum principle, when there are constraints on the control signals. During its rotation the manipulator section then performs oscillations about a position corresponding to minimum moment of inertia about the axis of rotation. It is shown that the motion considered in /3/, which contains a singular mode with minimum moment of inertia, is not optimal. The motion which satisfies the maximum principle is compared with it. There can be a singular mode in the optimal motion /4/ only when the number of control switchings is infinite.