Cooperative Path Planning and Constraints Analysis for Master-Slave Industrial Robots

A strategy of cooperative path planning for a master-slave multiple robot system is presented in this paper. The path planning method is based on motion constraints between the end-effectors of cooperative robots. Cooperation motions have been classified into three types by relative motions between end-effectors of master and slave robots, which is concurrent cooperation, coupled synchronous cooperation and combined synchronous cooperation. Based on this classification, position /orientation constraints and joint velocity constraints are explored in-depth here. In order to validate the path planning method and the theoretical developments in motion constraints analysis, representative experiments based on two industrial robots, Motoman VA1400 and HP20, are provided at the end of the paper. The experimental results have proved both the effectiveness of the path planning method and the correctness of the constraints analysis.