Energy Optimal Design of Jerk-Continuous Trajectories for Industrial Robots

In this paper a method for planning smooth and energy-efficient trajectories for industrial robots is presented. The motion design, which is based on the use of piecewise polynomial functions, is optimized for achieving minimum energy consumption when executing a trajectory that passes through a sequence of via-points with continuity. For robots with simple kinematics, such as the Cartesian robot presented in this work, the energy consumption estimation can be performed using equations based on inverse dynamic models that allow fast and reliable numerical computing.