Planning of collision-free trajectory for mobile manipulators

A method of planning sub-optimal trajectory for a mobile manipulator working in the environment including obstacles is presented. The path of the end-effector is defined as a curve that can be parameterized by any scaling parameter, the reference trajectory of a mobile platform is not needed. Constraints connected with the existence of mechanical limits for a given manipulator configuration, collision avoidance conditions and control constraints are considered. The motion of the mobile manipulator is planned in order to maximize the manipulability measure, thus to avoid manipulator singularities. The method is based on a penalty function approach and a redundancy resolution at the acceleration level. A computer example involving a mobile manipulator consisting of a nonholonomic platform and a SCARA type holonomic manipulator operating in a two-dimensional task space is also presented.