Motion planning for planar n-bar mechanisms with revolute joints

Maximizing the use of dual-arm robotic systems requires the development of planning algorithms analogous to those available for single-arm operations. In this paper, the global properties of the configuration spaces of planar n-bar mechanisms (i.e., kinematic chains forming a single closed loop) are used to design a complete motion planning algorithm. Numerical experiments demonstrate the algorithm's superiority over a typical algorithm that uses only local geometric information.