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Motion planning and control for systems with multiple mobile objects

  • US 6,004,016 A
  • Filed: 08/06/1996
  • Issued: 12/21/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/06/1996
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A system for controlling the movements of multiple mobile objects through a workspace, wherein the position of each object is dependent on the configuration of a plurality of interconnected linkages, as defined by a plurality, n, of configuration settings corresponding to n degrees of freedom of the object, the system comprising:

  • a path planner for planning in advance a series of movements of each of the mobile objects to provide a relatively coarse scale plan for the movements, wherein the path planner determines paths in a configuration space defined by n orthogonal axes corresponding to n configuration settings that define the position of each object in three-dimensional space; and

    a path execution module operable to move the objects in accordance with the relatively coarse scale plan provided by the path planner, and including a fine-scale artificial force field collision avoidance subsystem, to provide control signals to the movable objects such that they are moved along paths determined in part by the path planner and in part by the collision avoidance subsystem, whereby the objects are moved from starting points to desired endpoints without collisions with each other or with any stationary obstacles, and wherein the path execution module includesa waypoint interpolator, to generate finer resolution paths from path data provided by the path planner.a control law module for generating control signals based on the finer resolution path through configuration space and predicted configuration setting of the object,a collision avoidance force model, for generating collision avoidance control signals based on mutual proximity of the objects in the workplace, andmeans for combining the collision avoidance control signals and the control signals from the control law module, wherein collision avoidance is achieved on a fine scale by modifying the paths planed through the configuration space.

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