Time-optimal transportation of flexible payloads

An iterative dynamic programming algorithm is presented as a model-free controller for time-optimal robotic transportation of flexible payloads. This technique could reduce transportation cycle times in fields such as aircraft assembly and PCB manufacture and thereby reduce manufacturing costs. Several simple methods are developed to improve the convergence of real-time dynamic programming techniques to make the controller more industrially viable. The controller is demonstrated on a test rig, emulating a gantry robot in small scale, and promising results are presented