Context-aware robotic arm using fast embedded model predictive control

Abstract

The growing number of collaborative robotics in unstructured environments creates highly nonconvex nonlinear shared dynamical systems. For safety and speed, path planning and collision avoidance are of the utmost importance in these situations. We present a novel nonlinear MPC solution for use on a three-dimensional four-axis robotic manipulator. The system is the first of it's kind to take into account moving obstacles. Using the OpEn framework, optimisation is done by the PANOC and ALM techniques. Experimentation demonstrates extremely fast solver times on both PC and embedded platforms.