Collision free trajectory planning for hybrid manipulators

This paper addresses the problem of planning collision free paths for hybrid robots. In particular, the authors propose a procedure for computing optimal trajectories in presence of obstacles. The proposed procedure is based on combining a quick random search algorithm (RRT) with an optimisation method that is efficiently solved by using a genetic algorithm. The proposed procedure has been implemented on a hybrid robot that is composed of an industrial SCARA robot together with CaPaMan (Cassino Parallel Manipulator) that has been designed and built at LARM: Laboratory of Robotics and Mechatronics in Cassino. Experimental tests have been also carried out in order to validate the effectiveness of the proposed procedure.