THIS PAPER OUTLINES A GENERIC METHODOLOGY TO SYNTHESIZE SMOOTH ROBOT END EFFECTOR PATHS FROM POINT-TO-POINT INPUT. THE PATH IS GENERATED AS A DENSE SEQUENCE OF POINTS WHICH SPAN A SPARSE INPUT SEQUENCE OF TAUGHT POINTS. A CODE PROGRAMMED WITH EACH INPUT POINT ALLOWS THE USER TO INFLUENCE PATH GEOMETRY, PROVIDING FLEXIBILITY TO PERMIT TRACKING OF SEAMS OR EDGES. COMPARED WITH CUBIC SPLINES, THIS METHOD REDUCES COMPUTING TIME, GIVES MORE CONTROL OVER PATH GEOMETRY, AND SIMPLIFIES EDITING. IT EXPLICITLY DETERMINES CURVILINEAR DISTANCE ALONG THE PATH, TO FACILITATE VELOCITY CONTROL. USE OF CONFORMAL ROTATION VECTORS (RELATED TO QUATERNIONS) AVOIDS THE MATHEMATICAL SINGULARITY THAT EXISTS WITH EULER ANGLES, THUS HELPING TO MAINTAIN PROPER TOOL ORIENTATION RELATIVE TO WORKPIECE SURFACE AND TOOL TIP TRAJECTORY. THE ALGORITHMS ARE SUPPORTED BY A USER INTERFACE THAT PROVIDES A MENU-DRIVEN PENDAN
| Number of Pages : | 16 |
| Published : | 06/01/1990 |
