The dynamic effects and compensation of load transitions in robotic systems

Abstract The problem of a robot handling a payload typically involves pre‐load, load, and post‐load stages, and payload transitions between these stages. Although considerable work has focused on the control of robots carrying payloads, few consider the problem of load transitions—one of the most important effects on system performance. This article studies these transitions and presents a compensation method. It is shown that load transitions lead to abrupt (jump) parameters and uncertain transition times in the robot/payload model. A control strategy is proposed that takes the load transitions into account and guarantees the stable path tracking of robots in the face of these transitions. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified via simulation. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.