REAL-TIME COLLISION AVOIDANCE FOR KINEMATICALLY REDUNDANT MANIPULATORS

This paper presents a collision avoidance algorithm for kinematically redundant manipulators. The main interesting aspects of this algorithm are: • real-time application: if the time slot of the real time system is too short for computing the full algorithm, freedom of collision is guaranteed by a worst-case check • full 3-D features • general purpose: nearly all kinematic structures may be specified • robots and obstacles are treated similarly • regular data structures and algorithms: implementation on special hardware is possible The algorithm was implemented on a 68020 computer and tested by use of a robot simulation system.