An Overview of the Energy Efficiency and Power Management Strategies in Robots

The recent advances in Mobile Robots (MRs) have engendered the need for energy efficient performance. To achieve the latter, two worthwhile aspects come into play: gait planning and Energy Storage Systems (ESSs). These branch into gait parameter optimization, where the robot’s locomotion is rendered more efficient, ESS management, where the power providing unit is studied, and charge scheduling, responsible for handling MRs’ task allocation. Optimal and energy efficient gait synthesis was achieved through multi-objective optimization algorithms, while the robot’s ESS performance and charging schedules were studied by applying effective modeling techniques and algorithms. This paper offers an overview of recent works in the mentioned topics and aims to facilitate future possible research.