Planning the motion for a manipulator in a dynamic environment

In this paper, the authors present a novel approach to plan the motion for a manipulator operating in a dynamic environment where the information of obstacles cluttered in the work space is unknown. Obstacles in the work space could be stationary or moving objects. The collision-free motion of the robot is generated in the robot's configuration space. Based on the fact that the static obstacles always impose constraints on the motion of the robot while the time-varying obstacles only impose constraints on the motion of the robot within the specific time period, hence the time-varying obstacles are treated differently from the static obstacles. The motion planner is composed of two components, i.e. a static planner and a dynamic planner. The potential field mechanism used for the motion planner will guarantee its completeness. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of the planner for a planar robot.