A Minimal Touch Approach for Optimizing Energy Efficiency inPick-and-Place Manipulators

The interest in novel engineering methods andtools for optimizing the energy consumption in robotic systemsis currently increasing. In particular, from an industry pointof view, it is desirable to develop energy saving strategiesapplicable also to established manufacturing systems, beingliable of small possibilities for adjustments.Within this scenario,an engineering method is reported for reducing the totalenergy consumption of pick-and-place manipulators for givenend-effector trajectory. Firstly, an electromechanical model ofparallel/serial manipulators is derived. Then, an energy-optimaltrajectory is calculated, by means of time scaling, starting froma pre-scheduled trajectory performed at maximum speed (i.e.compatible with actuators limitations). A simulation case studyfinally shows the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.