Inverse Kinematics and Trajectory Planning of Planar Redundant Manipulators in Cluttered Workspace

Abstract

Redundant manipulators have high degrees of freedom (DOF) which enables the robot to work in cluttered environments. Inverse kinematics (IK) of redundant manipulators have multiple solutions, finding the best solution among the possible solutions is called redundancy resolution. Redundancy resolution can be performed by solving it as an optimization problem, the optimization criterion can be joint distance, joint-torque, and energy consumption. This paper focusses on inverse kinematics, redundancy resolution and trajectory planning of redundant manipulators for pick and place and path traversing applications. Case studies of IK solutions with obstacles in the workspace are shown for 5-DOF planar redundant manipulators. Simulations have also been carried out for redundancy resolution by taking joint distance minimization as objective and reaching the task space location without colliding obstacles, as constraints of the optimization. Results are reported on trajectories in joint space and these ensure smooth end-effector velocities in task space.