Real-time motion planning for interaction between human arm and robot manipulator

This paper proposes a new scheme for solving real-time motion planning problems between a human arm and a robot manipulator. These problems are very important towards real-time Human-Robot Interaction. For solving the real-time motion planning problems in dynamic interaction environments, a new method of Obstacle Direct Mapping (ODM) is proposed. In preprocessing phase, a mapping from cells in workspace to nodes and edges in the roadmap of configuration space is constructed. The roadmap of C-space is constructed based on a PRM framework. In query phase, some determinate points on obstacles (human arm)' surface are sampled, only the cells which contain at least one sampled point are mapped into the roadmap. Based on the points sampling on moving object's surface, translation and rotation of the object can be easily and rapidly expressed. Compared with the methods using online collision detection and A* searching technique, simulation experiments with real parameters of Kawasaki manipulator are implemented. The experimental results show that the proposed scheme is efficient and feasible for motion planning between a human arm and a robot manipulator.