Increasing the manoeuvring ability of highly redundant manipulators

A method to improve the efficacy of potential field collision avoidance is proposed to make such a technique more appropriate for finite link length redundant manipulators. A Laplacian collision free path is used on the basic route to a goal and is supplemented by a local geometric repulsive algorithm. Results are presented showing manipulators navigating tight corridors. The algorithm has relatively long link lengths. It has been found to be robust and increase the manoeuvrability of the manipulators by more than a factor of two