Optimal trajectory planning of wheeled mobile manipulators in cluttered environments using potential functions

This paper presents an advanced methodology for collision-free trajectory planning of wheeled mobile manipulators in obstructed environments by means of potential functions. In the presented method, all mobile manipulator parts and environmental obstacles are modeled as ellipsoids. Due to collision avoidance, the ellipsoid equations are expressed in a reference coordinate system and the corresponding dimensionless potential functions are defined. Then, the trajectory planning of a spatial mobile robot in cluttered environment is performed, employing optimal control theory. Beyond simplicity and novelty of the proposed method, depletion of prior methods is rectified, which lead to excessive computation and singularity during process. Also, a number of simulations and experiments for Scout mobile manipulator are carried out, which illustrate the power and efficiency of the proposed method. (C) 2011 Sharif University of Technology. Production and hosting by Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.