Coordination Strategy for Path Planning of Multiple Manipulators in Workcell Environment

In this paper, a coordination strategy for determining collision free path of end effectors of two manipulators involved in coordinated manipulation is proposed. This strategy consists of collision checking and path planning modules. Collision checking is done by modeling the links and environment of manipulator using sphere swept volume technique and utilizing minimum distance heuristic for interference check. Path planning is based on a two step approach for which breadth first search, A* algorithm and incremental A* algorithms are used to search the optimal collision free path. While determining the path of the end effector of manipulators, the obstacles present in the work space are considered as static obstacles and the links of the manipulator are viewed as dynamic obstacles by the other manipulator. The proposed coordination strategy is demonstrated by considering two manipulators with 6 degrees of freedom operating in 3D work cell environment with certain static obstacles.