Iterative dynamic programming: an approach to minimum energy trajectory planning for robotic manipulators

This paper proposes a technique of iterative dynamic programming to plan minimum energy consumption trajectories for robotic manipulators. The dynamic programming method is modified to perform a series of dynamic programming passes over a small reconfigurable grid covering only a portion of the solution space at any one pass. Although strictly no longer a global optimization process, this iterative approach retains the ability to avoid some poor local minima while avoiding the curse of dimensionality associated with a pure dynamic programming approach. The algorithm has an inherent parallel structure, allowing for reduced computation time on parallel architecture computers. No limiting assumptions are made about the performance index, or function to be optimized. As such, extremely complex functions and constraints are easily handled. Joint actuator and time constraints are considered in this work. The modified dynamic programming approach is verified experimentally by planning and executing a minimum energy consumption path for a Reis V15 industrial manipulator.