Utilisation of virtual arms for collision-avoidance in multi robot systems

The research reported addresses itself to the automatic collision-free path planning of robots sharing the same workspace in the presence of obstacles. The work has been carried-out on the underlying assumption that robots are with known kinematics and the environment can be modelled in advance. The strategy for collision avoidance is based on virtual arms, which is implemented initially for the determination of collision-free end point path, and subsequently for collision avoidance for other parts of the arm links. The relative position of the moving arm, with respect to another moving body which enters into its free work space, is depicted by two sets of parameters which characterize the forbidden translational and rotational movements of the arms. The collision avoidance strategy is based upon these parameters. In application of this approach, different cases of practical importance are considered, which incorporate a combination of different number of moving robot arms along with arbitrary obstacles.<>