MUMBAI, India, July 24 -- Intellectual Property India has published a patent application (202641085372 A) filed by Sri Eshwar College Of Engineering on July 11, 2026, for Safety-Aware Path Planning And Optimal Control In Human-Robot Collaborative Workspaces.
Inventors include Dr. M. Tamilarasi; Pooja T; Dr. B. Vennila; and Dr. M. P. Sindhu.
The application for the patent was published on July 17, 2026, under issue no. 29/2026.
Abstract: Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC) in shared workspaces requires collaborative coordination at the real time, which is essential for safety, efficiency and completion of the tasks. In this paper, we propose a theoretically sound approach using optimal control theory to generate real-time trajectories for robots that are in close proximity to humans. The proposed method seeks to minimize a cost function based on energy use, latency of the tasks, and a safety penalty determined by proximity. The model includes time varying safety zone around human co-workers and uses Pontryagin's Maximum Principle (PMP) to obtain the necessary conditions for optimal control. A hybrid control architecture based on Model Predictive Control (MPC) and Control Barrier Certificates (CBCs) is introduced to cope with the uncertainty of humans. This is shown in CoppeliaSim simulation with a UR5 co-bot arm under dynamic human motion and real-time re-planning in three different scenarios. Proposed CBC-MPC has zero safety violations, completion time of 12.4 ± 1.0 s and best smoothness of the trajectory compared with three baselines. This study presents a scalable, mathematically sound technique to incorporate humans into robot control loops.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
