Method and system for path planning in cartesian space

A system for planning a path for a device in Cartesian space having a plurality of Cartesian components, the device being movable along axes defining an axis space, the system comprising:

• means for receiving a first motion command from a user program, the motion command having desired motion-type information in the Cartesian space, and also having position and velocity information, the position,
• velocity and motion-type information defining a desired path;
• means for setting a constant velocity parameter based upon the velocity information;
• means for planning a set of interpolation parameters based on the position, velocity and motion-type information and based upon the constant velocity parameter;
• means for computing a plurality of intermediate Cartesian positions including location and orientation components based upon the interpolation parameters, the intermediate Cartesian positions being on the desired path;
• means for transforming the orientation components of the intermediate Cartesian positions into transformed orientation components;
• means for smoothing the location components and the transformed orientation components into smoothed location and smoothed transformed orientation components;
• means for inverse transforming the smoothed transformed orientation components into inverse transformed orientation components;
• and
• means for generating a plurality of commands in the axis space based upon the smoothed location components and the inverse transformed orientation components.