Experimental demonstration of singularity avoidance with trajectories based on the Bézier curves for free-floating manipulator

Path planning problem for a free-floating space manipulator can be solved in Cartesian space. In such approach, inverse kinematics is solved on the velocity level using the manipulator Jacobian, but dealing with dynamic singularities may be problematic. In this study, we present application of the Bézier curves for path planning. Modifications of curve shape allow avoidance of singularities. The selection of the Bézier curve parameters responsible for its shape is intuitive and simple. The demonstration of the proposed method was performed for a real system using planar air-bearing microgravity simulator. Experimental results are in agreement with the results of the numerical simulations.