Task oriented path planning of dual redundant manipulators

Abstract

This paper presents a motion planning algorithm for dual redundant manipulators performing a coordinated motion. In particular, the algorithm is developed for a dual-arm, point-to-point motion planning problem of moving from one relative configuration to another relative configuration. The high degrees of redundancy of dual arms usually exceed the number of task constraints, and the extra degrees of freedom are used to satisfy the usual constraints from joint limits and collision avoidance. To handle the case of applying a tool to an object of a complicated shape, a global motion planner is introduced in addition to the local motion planner. The algorithm is tested with a human-like robot having two arms with 9 degrees of freedom each, and its performance is reported.