Energy-based design optimization of Adept test trajectory for SCARA robots using clothoid curve

This work presents a method for optimizing the test trajectory for pick-and-place operation of the SCARA robots, where the clothoid curve was adopted to synthesize the right-angle transition part of the test trajectory and to determine the trajectory shape. The trajectory is planned using the S-shaped motion law in the level of continuous acceleration, and the position, speed and acceleration information of the interpolation point in the trajectory are calculated. In the trajectory design, the root mean squared (RMS) value of the kinetic energy derivative of the robot end-effector is defined as the evaluation index to optimize the clothoid curve parameters, and the RMS value of power consumption of the robot joints is adopted to evaluate the optimized trajectory, which shows that the optimized trajectory is the global optimum. By comparative study of the performance curves of motion trajectories from the perspective of common trajectory planning, it is verified that the trajectory with the optimized parameters can make the robot has good motion performance, which can improve the motion stability to meet the requirements.