A Proposal of Real-Time Configuration Control System for Redundant Manipulators

This paper is concerned with a real-time control system of trajectory tracking and obstacle avoidance using an avoidance manipulability measure for redundant manipulators. To perform the tasks adaptively without path-planning, information on the local environment is naturally restricted by limited recognition time. This means an adaptive configuration control has to manage its shape in real-time and without adequate information on its surroundings. Therefore, when the manipulator executes a task adaptively in a dynamic environment, its avoidance manipulability should always be maintained as high as possible to prepare for sudden avoiding. As a measure for gauging avoidance manipulability, we first propose a new index, “AMSIP.” By combining a concept of ”preview control” with real-time optimization of AMSIP distribution found by “1-step GA,” we next propose a new configuration control method, with future information being referred locally but effectively. The proposed system has been evaluated in simulations in terms of real-time configuration optimization, and the complete system has been proved to be feasible and practical.