Time-optimal trajectory optimization of serial robotic manipulator with kinematic and dynamic limits based on improved particle swarm optimization

Abstract Effective motion control can achieve accurate and fast positioning and movement of industrial robotics and improve industrial productivity significantly. Time-optimal trajectory optimization (TO) is a great concern in the motion control of robotics and can improve motion efficiency by providing high-speed and reasonable motion references to the motion controller. In this study, a new time-optimal TO strategy, polynomial interpolation function (PIF) combined with improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) considering kinematic and dynamic limits, successfully optimizes the movement time of the PUMA 560 serial manipulator along a randomly assigned path. The 4-3-4 PIF is first used to generate the smooth and 3-order continuous movement trajectories of six joints in joint space. The PSO with cosine decreasing weight (CDW-PSO) algorithm further reduces the trajectories movement time considering the limits of the angular displacement, angular velocity, angular acceleration, angular jerk, and joint torque. Experimental results show that the CDW-PSO algorithm achieves a better convergence rate of 23 and a better fitness value of 2.46 compared with the PSO with constant weight and linearly decreasing weight algorithms. The CDW-PSO optimized movement time is reduced by 83.6% compared to the manually setting movement time value of 15. The proposed time-optimal TO strategy can be conducted easily and directly search for global optimal solutions without approximation of the limits. The optimized trajectories could be incorporated in the motion controller of the actual manipulators due to considering the kinematic and dynamic limits.