Acta Mechanica Slovaca 2025, 29(3):54-60 | DOI: 10.21496/ams.2025.023

Path Optimization of a Mobile Robot Platform with a Robotic Arm

Patrik Pilát^{1, *}, Jozef Varga¹, Ján Semjon², Matúš Sabol²

¹ Prototyping and Innovation centre, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovakia

² Department of Production Technology and Robotics, Technical University of Košice, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Slovakia

This paper presents the development and simulation of a path optimization approach for a mobile assistive service robot equipped with a robotic manipulator arm to operate in hot gas chamber. The proposed control architecture integrates Model Predictive Control (MPC) with Jacobian-based Inverse Kinematics (IK) for enabling smooth, adaptive motion planning even under dynamically changing environmental conditions. A Matlab based simulation setup was used to verify the control approach using random disturbances to simulate real-world complications like payload mass variations, centre of gravity shifts, and obstacle interference. Results show that MPC adapts trajectories in real time. However, actuator constraints and very sudden changes in the environment could lead to increased deviations. Future improvements include refining the MPC cost function, introducing adaptive prediction horizons, and employing trajectory filtering to improve robustness. The presented approach forms a basis for future work on physical robots, with plans for implementation in the Webots simulation environment for digital twin creation and validation of semi-autonomous control.

Keywords: inverse kinematic; model predictive control; mobile service robot

Received: August 13, 2025; Revised: September 23, 2025; Accepted: October 1, 2025; Published: October 1, 2025  Show citation