Research on workspace of manipulator with complicated constraints

The robot operational range considering factors such as joint configuration, operational environment and end-effector orientation demands will be more practical valuable to robot designers. General representation of workspace with constraints was proposed in this paper, and those constraints were classified into three categories: independent joint variable constraints, inequality constraints and equality constraints. A numerical method was presented comprehensively based on the random possibility to solve workspace on the condition of constrained. Moreover, this paper gave a numerical example, which is on determining the feasible installation region of a special manipulator designed to repair steam generators in nuclear plant. This example showed the efficiency and simple application of the proposed solving method, and proved the practical value of researching robot workspace with constraints.