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Kinematic Reward, Measured Effort: Hardware-Validated RL Morphology Optimization of a Planar 2R Manipulator

2026-10-11 · arXiv: 2610.15756

One-line summary

A robotics research paper on Kinematic Reward, Measured Effort: Hardware-Validated RL Morphology Optimization of a Planar 2R Manipulator.

Engineering notes

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Chinese explanation / 中文解读

中文解读待补充:本站会优先为 VLA、具身智能、人形机器人控制、机器人操作等高价值论文补充中文说明。

Original abstract

Yoshikawa's Manipulability Index is generally used as a classical measure to define an optimal morphology of a manipulator. However, any such optimization is almost always studied as a purely kinematic quantity in simulation and is rarely validated on hardware. We present a reinforcement-learning framework with RSL-RL PPO that optimizes the morphology of a 2R SCARA-type manipulator arm with Yoshikawa's kinematic manipulability index as a core reward, and the analytically derived closed-form optimum for the circular task is used to verify that our method recovers it. Then the same method is applied to custom elliptical and rectangular paths having no analytical optimum. The RL-optimized morphologies are then transferred to a 2R hardware manipulator to validate its effect in reduction of joint load in the hardware. Compared to the worst morphology, the optimum morphology delivered by our method reduces second joint load by 38.4 +/- 0.6% for the ellipse path and 41.3 +/- 0.3% for the rectangle, and first joint load by 15%.

5.0Engineering value
7.0Research novelty
4.0Business relevance

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