An online motion planning algorithm for a 7DOF redundant manipulator

For a 7 degree of freedom (7DOF) manipulator which has redundant DOF, traditional numerical algorithm for the inverse kinematic model just provides only one possible solution for desired position and orientation of end-effector which can not fully use the redundancy feature of the 7DOF manipulator. This paper proposes an online motion planning algorithm for a 7DOF manipulator with an analytical inverse kinematic model. This algorithm uses a new constraint named Elbow Angle besides traditional position and orientation matrix constraint to solve the inverse kinematic model. By Using this new constraint, an analytical solution of the inverse kinematic model for this 7DOF manipulator is deduced and the Elbow Angle is autonomously decided online by the environment information. The simulation results demonstrate the high accuracy, fast computation and valuable application of this algorithm.