13.12.2017
Path planning for parallel manipulators, especially for manipulators greater than three degrees of freedom (DOF) is a challenging task for many reasons. Due to the complicated nature of their kinematics and the dangerous effects of parallel singularities, path planning of these manipulators can be computationally expensive and often the side-effect is that the overall reachable workspace is constrained to a very small operational area.
A solution based on a novel concept of global workspace roadmap is proposed for systematic path planning of high-DOF parallel manipulators, which enhances the overall reachable workspace. Rotary disk search and flood-fill algorithms were developed for efficient trajectory planning within the global workspace roadmap. This novel path planning scheme was successfully applied on various parallel manipulators, including two-DOF 5R, three-DOF 3-RPR, three-DOF 3-RRR parallel robots and six-DOF Stewart-Gough platform.
Personnel - Dr Wesley Au (past student)
Thesis Title - Path planning of parallel manipulators in configuration space
