Implementation of Nonlinear Model Predictive Path-Following Control for an Industrial Robot

TL;DR

This paper presents a real-time implementation of nonlinear model predictive path-following control for an industrial robot, enabling precise path tracking in applications like milling and measurement.

Contribution

It introduces a feasible real-time nonlinear model predictive control method for industrial robots, addressing constrained path following with and without reference speed.

Findings

Successful implementation on a KUKA LWR IV robot

Effective constrained path following demonstrated

Applicable to high-precision robotic tasks

Abstract

Many robotic applications, such as milling, gluing, or high precision measurements, require the exact following of a pre-defined geometric path. In this paper, we investigate the real-time feasible implementation of model predictive path-following control for an industrial robot. We consider constrained output path following with and without reference speed assignment. We present results from an implementation of the proposed model predictive path-following controller on a KUKA LWR IV robot.