Time-Optimal Fold Out of Large-Scale Manipulators with Obstacle Avoidance

Abstract

The autonomous operation of large-scale construction machines is of growing interest in the recent years. In this work, the optimal fold out and fold in maneuvers of the boom of a mobile concrete pump are considered. The five degrees of freedom large-scale manipulator (boom) of the mobile concrete pump is operated in an environment with several obstacles and its motion is restricted to meet a number of system and safety constraints. A trajectory planning strategy is presented in this work, which allows to obtain nearly time-optimal trajectories. The presented approach features a rather low computational complexity, which, in contrast to the state of the art, exhibits very fast calculation times. The feasibility of the proposed trajectory planning strategy is analyzed by simulation results for a realistic scenario of a real-world mobile concrete pump.