On the Use of Redundancy in Robot Kinematic Control

Redundancy offers a potential over nonredundancy in robot design and control in terms of greater motion/force manipulability. The solution to the kinematic control problem is crucial for an effective use of redundancy. The redundant degree-of-freedom's (DOF's) can be exploited to meet additional motion/force constraints, such as dexterity, task compatibility, obstacle avoidance, and limited joint range. The augmented task space approach is adopted and a recently established computational method to solve the constrained inverse kinematic problem is proposed. Finally, a case study for a snake-like robot operating in a constrained environment is developed and simulation results are included.