Potential-based path planning for robot manipulators

In this paper, a potential-based path-planning algorithm for a high DOF robot manipulator is proposed. Unlike some c-space-based approaches, which often require expensive preprocessing for the construction of the c-space, the proposed approach uses the workspace information directly. The approach computes, similar to that done in electrostatics, repulsive force and torque between objects in the workspace. A collision-free path of a manipulator will then be obtained by locally adjusting the manipulator configuration to search for minimum potential configurations using that force and torque. The proposed approach is efficient because these potential gradients are analytically tractable. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm works well, in terms of computation time and collision avoidance, for manipulators up to 9 degrees of freedom (DOF). © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •