A method of minimum-time trajectory planning ensuring collision-free motion for two robot arms

A minimum-time trajectory planning for two robot arms with designated paths and coordination is proposed. The problem considered in this paper is a subproblem of hierarchically decomposed trajectory planning approach for multiple robots : i) path planning, ii) coordination planning, iii) velocity planning. In coordination planning stage, coordination space, a specific form of configuration space, is constructed to determine collision region and collision-free region, and a collision-free coordination curve (CFCC) passing collision-free region is selected. In velocity planning stage, normal dynamic equations of the robots, described by joint angles, velocities and accelerations, are converted into simpler forms which are described by traveling distance along collision-free coordination curve. By utilizing maximum allowable torques and joint velocity limits, admissible range of velocity and acceleration along CFCC is derived, and a minimum-time velocity planning is calculated in phase plane. Also the planning algorithm itself is converted to simple numerical iterative calculation form based on the concept of neural optimization network, which gives a feasible approximate solution to this planning problem. To show the usefulness of proposed method, an example of trajectory planning for 2 SCARA type robots in common workspace is illustrated.