Optimal Time-Complexity Speed Planning for Robot Manipulators

In this paper, we consider the speed planning problem for a robotic manipulator. In particular, we present an algorithm for finding the time-optimal speed law along an assigned path that satisfies velocity and acceleration constraints and respects the maximum forces and torques allowed by the actuators. The addressed optimization problem is a finite-dimensional reformulation of the continuous-time speed optimization problem, obtained by discretizing the speed profile with n points. The proposed algorithm has linear complexity with respect to n and to the number of degrees of freedom. Such complexity is the best possible for this problem. Numerical tests show that the proposed algorithm is significantly faster than algorithms already existing in literature.