| Summary: | This thesis deals with the problem of minimum time control of a rigid robot manipulator with
point-to-point motion subject to constraints on the control inputs. Due to the nonlinear and
coupled dynamics of the robot manipulator, finding minimum time strategies is algorithmically
difficult and computationally very intensive, even when the dynamic equations and parameters
of the manipulator are precisely known. As a result, the practical applicability of the available
methods currently is very limited.
In this research, we assume the control inputs are always bang-bang and switch once. Using
the Principle of Work and Energy, a simple and practical "zero-net-work" searching approach
is proposed. The proposed method focuses on changes in the manipulator's kinetic energy
during the time optimal motion, instead of concentrating on the system's state variables, as
is usually done in conventional approaches. The "zero-net-work" method is used to develop
the controllers for one-link manipulators, a 3-degree of freedom cylindrical manipulator and a
two-degree of freedom revolute manipulator. The results show that if the structure of the exact
minimum time control is bang-bang with a single switch, using the "zero-net-work" method we
will get the exact minimum time solution. If the exact minimum time control has more than
one switch, using the "zero-net-work" method we will get a near-minimum-time solution. The
major advantages of the proposed method are that it does not require initial boundary value
guesses and is computationally efficient. === Applied Science, Faculty of === Mechanical Engineering, Department of === Graduate
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