Motion planning and control of a point-mass robot in a 3-dimensional space with application to a cylindrical manipulator

In this paper we propose a new solution to the findpath problem of a point-mass robot which is required to move safely to a designated target in a 3-dimensional workspace. We consider a priori known workspace cluttered with obstacles of arbitrary position and size. The novelty of the solution is three-fold. Firstly, a velocity algorithm is used to drive the robot from its initial position to the target position and remain there forever. Secondly, in the presence of obstacles, the control laws are generated by introducing turning angles which ensure that the robot steers safely past the obstacles. Finally, the control laws ultimately guarantee that the equilibrium point of the given system is asymptotically stable. The proposed technique is verified using computer simulations and an application consisting of a cylindrical manipulator is presented.