Obstacle avoidance for kinematically redundant manipulators using a dual neural network

One important issue in the motion planning and control of kinematically redundant manipulators is the obstacle avoidance. In this paper, a recurrent neural network is developed and applied for kinematic control of redundant manipulators with obstacle avoidance capability. An improved problem formulation is proposed in the sense that the collision-avoidance requirement is represented by dynamically-updated inequality constraints. In addition, physical constraints such as joint physical limits are also incorporated directly into the formulation. Based on the improved problem formulation, a dual neural network is developed for the online solution to collision-free inverse kinematics problem. The neural network is simulated for motion control of the PA10 robot arm in the presence of point and window-shaped obstacle.