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Topics in Trajectory Generation for Robots

Ghazaei, Mahdi LU (2015) In Research Reports TFRT-3265
Abstract
A fundamental problem in robotics is generating the motion for a task. How to translate a task to motion or a series of movements is a non-trivial problem. The complexity of the task, the structure of the robot, and the desired performance determine the sequence of movements, the path, and the course of motion as a function of time, namely the trajectory. As we discuss in this thesis, a trajectory can be acquired from a human demonstration or generated by carefully designing an objective function. In the first approach, we examine a number of robotic setups which are suitable for human demonstration. More notably, admittance control as a new dimension to the robot-assisted teleoperation is investigated. We also describe a free-floating... (More)
A fundamental problem in robotics is generating the motion for a task. How to translate a task to motion or a series of movements is a non-trivial problem. The complexity of the task, the structure of the robot, and the desired performance determine the sequence of movements, the path, and the course of motion as a function of time, namely the trajectory. As we discuss in this thesis, a trajectory can be acquired from a human demonstration or generated by carefully designing an objective function. In the first approach, we examine a number of robotic setups which are suitable for human demonstration. More notably, admittance control as a new dimension to the robot-assisted teleoperation is investigated. We also describe a free-floating behavior which makes robust lead-through programming possible. As a way to utilize these setups, we present some ideas for developing a high-level language for an event-based programming common to assembly tasks.



Since immediate reaction to variations in the target state and/or robot state is desirable, we reformulate the trajectory generation problem as a controller design problem. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, we derive a closed-loop solution to the fixed-time trajectory-generation problem with a minimum-jerk cost functional. We show that the resulting trajectory coincides with a fifth-order polynomial function of time that instantaneously updates due to changes in the reference signal and/or the robot states.



A short comparison is made between kinematic and dynamic models for generating optimal trajectories. The conclusion is that given conservative kinematic constraints, both models behave in a similar way. Having this in mind, we derive an analytic solution to the problem of fixed-time trajectory generation with a quadratic cost function under velocity and acceleration constraints. The advantage of the analytic solution compared to an on-line optimization approach lies in the efficiency of the computation.



To extend the idea of closed-loop trajectory generation, we adapt the Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework. MPC is traditionally applied to tracking problems, i.e., when there is an explicit reference signal. Thus, it is a common practice to have a separate layer that generates the reference signal. We propose an integrated approach by introducing a final state constraint in the formulation. Additionally, we give the interpretation that the difference between tracking and point-to-point trajectory-planning problems is in the density of the specified desired reference signal. We utilize a strategy to reduce the discretization time successively. This way, we respect the real-time constraints for computation time while the accuracy of the solution is gradually improved as the deadline approaches. We have verified our proposed MPC approach to trajectory generation in a ball-catching experiment. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
supervisor
organization
publishing date
type
Thesis
publication status
published
subject
in
Research Reports TFRT-3265
pages
120 pages
publisher
Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University
ISSN
0280-5316
project
PRACE
LCCC
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
month = mar
id
34df53b3-d949-4a76-b23d-786a98d05052 (old id 5148838)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 14:12:15
date last changed
2018-11-21 20:24:27
@misc{34df53b3-d949-4a76-b23d-786a98d05052,
  abstract     = {{A fundamental problem in robotics is generating the motion for a task. How to translate a task to motion or a series of movements is a non-trivial problem. The complexity of the task, the structure of the robot, and the desired performance determine the sequence of movements, the path, and the course of motion as a function of time, namely the trajectory. As we discuss in this thesis, a trajectory can be acquired from a human demonstration or generated by carefully designing an objective function. In the first approach, we examine a number of robotic setups which are suitable for human demonstration. More notably, admittance control as a new dimension to the robot-assisted teleoperation is investigated. We also describe a free-floating behavior which makes robust lead-through programming possible. As a way to utilize these setups, we present some ideas for developing a high-level language for an event-based programming common to assembly tasks.<br/><br>
<br/><br>
Since immediate reaction to variations in the target state and/or robot state is desirable, we reformulate the trajectory generation problem as a controller design problem. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman equation, we derive a closed-loop solution to the fixed-time trajectory-generation problem with a minimum-jerk cost functional. We show that the resulting trajectory coincides with a fifth-order polynomial function of time that instantaneously updates due to changes in the reference signal and/or the robot states. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
A short comparison is made between kinematic and dynamic models for generating optimal trajectories. The conclusion is that given conservative kinematic constraints, both models behave in a similar way. Having this in mind, we derive an analytic solution to the problem of fixed-time trajectory generation with a quadratic cost function under velocity and acceleration constraints. The advantage of the analytic solution compared to an on-line optimization approach lies in the efficiency of the computation. <br/><br>
<br/><br>
To extend the idea of closed-loop trajectory generation, we adapt the Model Predictive Control (MPC) framework. MPC is traditionally applied to tracking problems, i.e., when there is an explicit reference signal. Thus, it is a common practice to have a separate layer that generates the reference signal. We propose an integrated approach by introducing a final state constraint in the formulation. Additionally, we give the interpretation that the difference between tracking and point-to-point trajectory-planning problems is in the density of the specified desired reference signal. We utilize a strategy to reduce the discretization time successively. This way, we respect the real-time constraints for computation time while the accuracy of the solution is gradually improved as the deadline approaches. We have verified our proposed MPC approach to trajectory generation in a ball-catching experiment.}},
  author       = {{Ghazaei, Mahdi}},
  issn         = {{0280-5316}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Licentiate Thesis}},
  publisher    = {{Department of Automatic Control, Lund Institute of Technology, Lund University}},
  series       = {{Research Reports TFRT-3265}},
  title        = {{Topics in Trajectory Generation for Robots}},
  url          = {{https://lup.lub.lu.se/search/files/3842120/5148885.pdf}},
  year         = {{2015}},
}