Minimum-time position control of multi-axes mechanical systems: a fast computation method using time-varying optimal regulator theory

Many of automatic machines in manufacturing systems are multi-axes mechanical systems, in which each axis is controlled to synchronize with other axes to achieve the given tasks. This paper considers such synchronizing control of multi-axes mechanical systems, and deals with a method to minimize the cycle time needed for the given task. The problem is formulated as a nonlinear constrained optimization problem and a fast computation method is proposed for the minimum-time solution using time-varying optimal regulator theory. By the proposed method, the computation time is reduced to about 1/10 of those spent by general gradient-type methods