Motion planning and task allocation for a manipulator in the frequency domain

This paper proposes a numerical method of motion planning and task allocation for a manipulator in the frequency domain. For a redundant manipulator, the trajectories of redundant joints are predetermined in terms of the Nth partial sum of the Fourier series. Then the optimal coefficients of the Fourier series are determined by the Powell's method and an approximate optimal solution is obtained from these coefficients. For a nonredundant manipulator, a task can be allocated to a better location in the workspace based on the frequency response. To show the validity of the proposed method, the authors apply the method to a redundant and a nonredundant case with a 3-link planar manipulator and a PUMA 560, respectively. They analyze the solutions by the fast Fourier transform.<>