System of trajectory planning for robotic manipulators based on pre-defined time-optimum trajectory shapes

An apparatus for reliable and numerically efficient generation of time-optimum trajectories with easy-to-track or continuous acceleration profiles for the arm moves of robotic manipulators to produce time-optimum arm movement along a transfer path, comprising:

• means for pre-defining a set of fundamental trajectory shapes which cover all possible combinations of constraints for a given category of arm movements along a trajectory path;
• means for determining the set of conditions associated with each fundamental trajectory shape which determine whether the shape can be used for a particular arm movement;
• means for decomposing said fundamental trajectory shapes into segments where a single constraint is active;
• means for determining the time-optimum solutions for the segments;
• means for combining the time-optimum solutions of the segments into time-optimum trajectory shapes;
• and
• means for producing time-optimum arm moves of the robotic manipulators along the transfer path by selecting time-optimum trajectory shapes that can be used for the particular arm moves based on the determinations of said means for determining the set of conditions.

A method for reliable and numerically efficient blending of trajectories for simple moves of multi-arm robotic manipulators into a non-stop compound move along a smooth path, comprising the steps of:

• decomposing trajectories for the individual simple moves into independent components;
• overlapping said independent components of the trajectories for the individual simple moves for a given time interval;
• and
• combining the overlapped components into a trajectory that provides a non-stop move along a smooth path;
• identifying a set of fundamental trajectory shapes which cover a given set of constraints for a given category of arm movement along a transfer path.

An apparatus for reliable and numerically efficient blending of trajectories for simple moves of multi-arm robotic manipulators into a non-stop compound move along a smooth path, comprising:

• means for decomposing trajectories for the individual simple moves into independent components;
• means for overlapping said independent components of the trajectories for the individual simple moves for a given time interval;
• and
• means for combining the overlapped components into a trajectory that provides a non-stop move along a smooth path;
• identifying a set of fundamental trajectory shapes which cover a given set of constraints for a given category of arm movement along a transfer path.