Energy minimization for 3-RRR fully planar parallel manipulator using particle swarm optimization

This paper presents an optimization problem for the 3-degrees-of-freedom RRR fully planar parallel manipulator (3-RRR) based on the actuator power consumption. The optimization purposes to determine the optimal link and platform masses in order to minimize the electrical energy consumed by the actuators subject to the kinematic, geometric and dynamic constraints. The Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), increasingly being used in various engineering applications, has been considered as the optimization tool. A discrete-time PID control scheme is designed for demonstrating the energy saving by means of the mass optimization. Finally the optimization results for the eight working modes of 3-RRR have been compared to each other and given in tables.

► WM2 is the best WM that consumes about 400% less power than the worst WM. ► WM2 provides superior initial configuration for actuators. ► Optimization resulted smooth torque distributions among the joints for all WMs. ► Optimized masses may contribute performance of joints by lowering joint torques. ► Initial tracking error, amplitude of joint rotation, link masses cause consumption.