Obstacle Avoidance for a Robotic Arm Employing Real-Time Expert System Techniques

Typically a robot cannot handle a situation in which it has to avoid a random obstacle in its path. This paper discusses an approach for on-line obstacle avoidance using a real-time expert system. The method relies on an algorithm which employs a one-step optimization with N-step lookahead and global linearization. The system receives input data from a vision system, which is used to identify the obstacles and their shape. An expert system observes the movements of the robot and takes over the control when there is a possibility of collision. The system employs the concept of focusing, moving faster when there is space, and slowing down to give more time to solve the problem of bypassing when operating space is restricted.