Path Planning for an Articulated Transporter/Manipulator System

Abstract

Abstract This work addresses the three dimensional path planning for an Articulated Transporter/Manipulator System (ATMS) in a given working environment. A vertical motion capability provides the ATMS a new ability which can be used to advantage in the generation of collision free paths. It also complicates the path planning process, however, by not being constrained to a 2D environment. A hierarchical structure of path planning is developed to decompose the three-dimensional path planning problem into several two-dimensional sub-problems.