Elastic Strips: Real-Time Path Modification for Mobile Manipulation

Abstract

The elastic strip framework presented in this paper is a new approach to real-time obstacle avoidance for robots with many degrees of freedom. The avoidance behavior can be integrated with task execution, a capability necessary for the application of mobile manipulation to dynamic realworld environments. The elastic strip initially represents a collision-free path generated by a planner. As the environment changes, the elastic strip is incrementally modied to maintain a smooth, collision-free path. Since the elastic strip is entirely represented in workspace, costly computation in a high-dimensional conguration space is avoided. This results in an eÆcient modi cation procedure for the elastic strip, even for robots with many degrees of freedom. The general framework of elastic strips is introduced and its application to obstacle avoidance during task execution is discussed. 1 Introduction The robust execution of planned robot motion in dynamic environments and in the presence of unc...