Obstacle avoidance of underactuated robots based on virtual spring-damper model

Abstract

A new method based on virtual spring-damper model is proposed for collision-free trajectory planning of planar underactuated robots. The generalized forces of nonholonomic constraints equations are modified by the virtual spring-damper model when there are obstacles in workspace. The partly stable controllers are adopted and the energy based fitness function is built, then the best switching sequence of partly stable controllers are obtained by genetic algorithm. Numerical simulations which are carried out on the planar 3R underactuated robots show effectiveness of the proposed method.