Manipulator and control method thereof

A manipulator having a plurality of operating degrees of freedom (DOFs) used in an operation and at least one redundant DOF provided in addition to the operating DOFs, comprising:

• a current position calculation unit to calculate angles of joints of the manipulator and to calculate absolute coordinates of the joints from the angles of the joints;
• a sensor unit to calculate a three-dimensional position coordinate of an obstacle around the manipulator;
• a collision danger calculation unit to judge whether or not there is danger of collision of the manipulator with the obstacle based on the absolute coordinates of the joints and the three-dimensional position coordinate of the obstacle;
• a collision avoidance DOF calculation unit to judge whether the manipulator is capable of avoiding collision with the obstacle using only the at least one redundant DOF, upon judging that there is danger of collision with the obstacle, to judge whether the manipulator is capable of avoiding collision with the obstacle using the operating DOFs, upon judging that the manipulator is not capable of avoiding collision with the obstacle using only the at least one redundant DOF, and to calculate at least one operating DOF having the lowest priority while performing the operation among at least one operating DOF capable of avoiding collision with the obstacle, upon judging that there is the at least one operating DOF capable of avoiding collision with the obstacle;
• and
• a joint control unit to control the joints so as to avoid collision with the obstacle using the calculated at least one operating DOF.