This research from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden is fascinating from both a robotics standpoint, and our current focus on Power & Energy here at element14.
An algorithm was developed that takes all the sharp corners off an industrial robot's movements; reducing the rapid acceleration and braking between static points, but without actually adding any time to the overall task. This latter aspect is pretty important, as applying this method wouldn't interfere with any existing production cycles and upsetting the overall performance on the factory floor.
They monitored the power consumption between the two sets of motion commands and the results are amazing. The fluid motion reduces power consumption by 40%, which makes you think it could be equally important for more domestic or maker applications. Check it out.
I was interested in finding out if anyone had thoughts on how you might apply a similar tactic with your own robotics projects? Doing so could make a huge difference to battery life, or the size (and therefore cost) of power supplies.
