A bidirectional local search method to path planning for an articulated robot with many degrees of freedom(1st report)

Abstract

In order to manipulate an articulated robot, we must find a collision free path from the start configuration to the goal one. Because the number of postures that can be taken becomes huge when the number of robot′s axes increases, a path of an articulated robot cannot be easily obtained. In this research, a path is efficiently generated by trying a bidirectional (start and goal configurations) local search. Furthermore, a path is generated by expanding the search space for the narrow part surrounded by obstacles.