Fast Robot Arm Inverse Kinematics and Path Planning Under Complex Static and Dynamic Obstacle Constraints

TL;DR

This paper presents a fast, reliable method for inverse kinematics and path planning of robot arms that efficiently handles complex static and dynamic obstacles, suitable for real-time applications on modern hardware.

Contribution

It introduces a novel MSC-based approach optimized for practical arm configurations, enabling real-time obstacle avoidance including dynamic obstacles.

Findings

Achieves 200-300ms computation time for 8 DOF arm path planning.

Handles complex static and dynamic obstacle constraints effectively.

Mathematics accessible to high school students for educational purposes.

Abstract

Described here is a simple, reliable, and quite general method for rapid computation of robot arm inverse kinematic solutions and motion path plans in the presence of complex obstructions. The method derived from the MSC (map-seeking circuit) algorithm, optimized to exploit the characteristics of practical arm configurations. The representation naturally incorporates both arm and obstacle geometries. The consequent performance on modern hardware is suitable for applications requiring real-time response, including smooth continuous avoidance of dynamic obstacles which impinge on the planned path during the traversal of the arm. On high-end GPGPU hardware computation of both final pose for an 8 DOF arm and a smooth obstacle-avoiding motion path to that pose takes approximately 200-300msec depending on the number of waypoints implemented. The mathematics of the method is accessible to high school seniors, making it suitable for broad instruction. [Note: This revision includes a general compute strategy for paths from arbitrary pose to arbitrary pose and a compute strategy for continuous motion mid-course avoidance of dynamic obstacles.]