A Grasp - based Motion Planning Algorithm for Intelligent Character

A Grasp-based Motion Planning Algorithm for Intelligent Character Animation Maciej Kalisiak Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering University of Toronto 1999 The automated animation of human characters continues to be a challenge in computer graphics. We present a novel kinematic motion planning algorithm for character animation which addresses some of the outstanding problems. The problem domain for our algorithm is as follows: given an environment with designated handholds and footholds, determine the motion as an optimization problem. The algorithm exploits a combination of geometric constraints, posture heuristics, and gradient descent optimization in order to arrive at an appropriate motion sequence. The method provides a single framework for animated characters capable of animating the model using an assortment of modes of locomotion and capable of solving complex constrained locomotion tasks. We illustrate our results with demonstrations of a human character using walking, swinging, climbing, and crawling in order to navigate in a variety of environments.