An on-line task modification method for singularity avoidance of robot manipulators

In this paper, we present an on-line task modification method (OTMM) to realize singularity avoidance for nonredundant and redundant manipulators at the velocity level. The method introduces a correction vector, constructed from the task velocity and the singular vector corresponding to the minimum singular value, into the task velocity. The performance is simply affected by the choice of the lower limit of the minimum singular value and a scalar adjusting function, which is monotone with respect to the minimum singular value. The method makes unnecessary avoiding the singularity point by off-line path planning for nonredundant or redundant manipulators, and the effort to check whether the singularity is escapable for redundant manipulators. The simulation results show the effectiveness of the OTMM for on-line singularity avoidance in manipulator motion control.