Research on path-planning method of a redundant modular robot

The more complicated anticipant trajectory should be followed by the end-effector of a robot to meet the complex tasks of it, which is a hard job to a general industry robot, but the required path-planning can be realized by a redundant modular robot because of its less joint space limitation. An algorithm for three-dimensional spatial ellipse path-planning is presented in this paper in accord with the characteristic of the redundant modular robots. In this algorithm, the spatial trajectory is simplified to the one in two-dimensional plane by transformation of coordinates firstly, then the differential motion vector of end-effector is deduced by the method of linear interpolation with parabolic transition field, finally the differential increment of joint space is resolved by the inverse kinematics solution, even one or more joints damaged, the required trajectory can be realized continuously by Jacobian Matrix reconfiguration. Through the simulations of a 9-DOF redundant modular robot, the results demonstrate that the tracking accuracy is up to ± 2.2 mm , which verifies the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm, and it can be generalized to other styles of curves such as parabola, hyperbola, starlike line etc.