Using OxSim for path planning

We address the issue of building scalable and reusable path planners for re alistic robot manipulators working in three-dimensional space amid complex geometry, by presenting the latest version of our robot manipulator plannin g toolbox, OXSIM. OXSIM is designed to greatly simplify the building ol: pl anners by providing core competence in three-dimensional geometry. This is done by the provision of efficient routines for computing the distance betw een parts of the robot and ifs environment. A new version of OXSIM, written in C++, provides an object-oriented interface to the basic system, which i ncreases its ease of use. Here we give an overview of OXSIM and how it work s and describe a modified version of the probabilistic road map planner tha t we have implemented under the framework. (C) 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.