Time suboptimal control of industrial manipulators along specified paths while keeping an end-effector orientation unchanged

A method for the time suboptimal control of an industrial manipulator that moves along a specified path while keeping its end-effector orientation unchanged is proposed. Nonlinear system equations that describe the manipulator motion are linearized at each time step along the path. A method which gives control inputs (joint angular velocities) for time suboptimal control of the manipulator is developed. In the formulation, joint angular velocity and acceleration limitations are also taken into consideration. A six degree of freedom elbow type manipulator is used in a case study to verify the method developed.