A New Energy-Efficient Approach to Planning Pick-and-Place Operations

Abstract

Pick-and-place operations are basic, and are currently the most common for robots operating in the industry. Massive applications makes it reasonable to ask whether, and to what extent these operations are realised in a way that guarantees rational energy consumption. In many cases, the answer to such a question is neither positive nor known. Therefore, this paper attempts to present a rational and systematic approach to the low-energy pick-and-place operations performed by robots. This paper describes a new approach for the robot’s tool centre point path planning, which enables the minimisation of energy consumption wherein productivity in preserved, and where care is taken for the persistence of the critical mechanical components of the robot cooperating with the autonomous mobile platform. The effectiveness of the described approach has been proven from the results of the theoretical, simulation, experimental and implementation tests carried out using an industrial articulated robot with six degrees of freedom.