Path planning for robot manipulator based on middle goal method

The authors present the planning of a collision-free path for an industrial robot manipulator. If there are some obstacles in the work space, the manipulator recognizes them and plans the safety trajectory autonomously. The manipulator can monitor the obstacles in the work space by a camera. The image from the camera is processed, and the obstacles are recognized by the computer. The safety path for the manipulator is planned in configuration space. This space is constructed with the joint angles. By introducing the middle goal method proposed, the time for the planning of the path is reduced. The effectiveness of the proposed method is shown by several experiments with two- and three-degree-freedom manipulators