CONFIGURATION-SPACE MODEL OF TIGHTLY COORDINATED 2-ROBOT MANIPULATORSOPERATING IN 3-DIMENSIONAL WORKSPACE

A tightly coordinated two robot manipulator system (TCTR) can replace human beings in manufacturing, hazardous material handling, undersea o perations, and out-space exploration, Since the configuration space (C -space) model has been successfully used in the studies of automatic o ff-line collision-free path planning, optimal trajectory planning, and optimal control of a single robot, there are attempts to apply the C- space model to these studies of a TCTR. A fundamental assumption used in the C-space model for a single robot is that any continuous traject ory planned in the C-space can be uniquely mapped to a continuous traj ectory in the world space, However, this assumption cannot be satisfie d when the C-space model is applied to a TCTR, Therefore, applying the C-space model to a TCTR in the past was based on additional heuristic constraints that prevent the utilization of full ability of the TCTR. This paper presents a method to define and decompose systematically t he C-space of a TCTR so that the aforementioned assumption can be sati sfied without sacrificing the ability of the TCTR, By using the C-spac e decomposition method, the methodologies for a single robot arm and a TCTR can be unified, which means that the control and planning method s developed for a single robot can be systematically extended for a TC TR.