An Approach to Reduce Computational Load: Precalculating Gain Matrices for an LQR Controller of a Four-Axis Manipulator Using State Space Kinematics

Abstract

When designing a power or CPU constrained device where a four-axis robotic arm is required and access to the Robot Operating System (ROS) is not an option, finding an efficient state space controller for a four-axis arm can be an obstacle. In this paper, I explore a method to optimize the computing power required for a computer algebra system (CAS) to compute linear quadratic regulator (LQR) matrices by precomputing the gain matrix for different states. Example C++ code is provided on Github, along with ideas for further exploration.