THE PAPER PRESENTS AN OPTIMUM PATH PLANNING ALGORITHM FOR ROBOT MANIPULATORS. IT IS ASSUMED THAT A MANIPULATOR IS WORKING IN AN ENVIRONMENT WHICH CONTAINS A STATIC OBSTACLE. A COLLISION AVOIDANCE STRATEGY IS DEVELOPED BASED ON A SIMPLIFIED REPRESENTATION OF THE ROBOT ARM. THE COLLISION CHECKING STRATEGY IS THEN INCORPORATED IN THE OPTIMAL CONTROL FORMULATION TO GENERATE A MINIMUM-ENERGY PATH. ASSUMING THAT THE PATH END POINTS ARE FIXED IN THE CARTESIAN SPACE, THE OPTIMAL CONTROL FINDS A COLLISION-FREE PATH THROUGH THE MINIMIZATION OF AN ENERGY FUNCTION. THIS PROBLEM IS SOLVED USING A VARIATIONAL APPROACH CALLED THE METHOD OF LOCAL VARIATIONS. THIS METHOD FINDS A SOLUTION TO THE OPTIMAL CONTROL PROBLEM ITERATIVELY UNDER CONSTRAINTS ON STATE AND CONTROL VARIABLES. THE PROPOSED ALGORITHMS ARE TESTED THROUGH DIGITAL COMPUTER SIMULATIONS.
| Number of Pages : | 10 |
| Published : | 06/01/1991 |
