AN INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE FOR ROBOT MOTION PLANNING AND CONTROL IN THE PRESENCE OF OBSTACLES WITH UNKNOWN TRAJECTORIES

We present an integrated architecture for real-time planning and contr ol of robot motions, for a robot operating in the presence of moving o bstacles whose trajectories are not known a priori. The architecture c omprises three control loops: an inner loop to linearize the robot dyn amics, and two outer loops to implement the attractive and repulsive f orces used by an artificial potential field motion planning algorithm. From a control theory perspective, our approach is unique in that the outer control loops are used to effect both desirable transient respo nse and collision avoidance. From a motion planning perspective, our a pproach is unique in that the dynamic characteristics of both the robo t and the moving obstacles are considered. Several simulations are pre sented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the planner/controller co mbination.