Minimum-time path-planning of robotic manipulators in Cartesian space with dynamics constraints

A numerical algorithm for computing the time-optimal straight-line motion of a robotic manipulator between two points in Cartesian space is proposed. The main contribution of this approach is that intermediate points need not lie on the line exactly, but only within a prespecified limit. This assumption is justified in many cases. A systematic approach is also proposed to find a feasible initial point. Since this approach does not use the inverse Jacobian matrix transformation between joint space and Cartesian space, it is not affected by singular points. Therefore, any singular point can be included in the path. Several examples illustrate the validity of this approach.<>