Automatic Planning of Manipulator Transfer Movements

Abstract

This paper deals with the class of problems that involve finding where to place or how to move a solid object in the presence of obstacles. The solution to this class of problems is essential to the automatic planning of manipulator transfer movements, i.e. the motions to grasp a part and place it at some destination. This paper presents algorithms for planning manipulator paths that avoid collisions with objects in the workspace and for choosing safe grasp points on objects. These algorithms allow planning transfer movements for Cartesian manipulators. The approach is based on a method of computing an explicit representation of the manipulator configurations that would bring about a collision.