From Paths to Trajectories |
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Time-Optimal Path Following (July 2012)
This paper presents a novel method to generate the time-optimal trajectory that exactly follows a given differentiable joint-space path within given bounds on joint accelerations and velocities. We also present a path preprocessing method to make nondifferentiable paths differentiable by adding circular blends. We introduce improvements to existing work that make the algorithm more robust in the presence of numerical inaccuracies. Furthermore we validate our methods on hundreds of randomly generated test cases on simulated and real 7-DOF robot arms. Finally, we provide open source software that implements our algorithms.
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Parabolic Blends (October 2011)
We present an approach for converting a path of multiple continuous linear segments into a trajectory that satisfies velocity and acceleration constraints and closely follows the given path without coming to a complete stop at every waypoint. Our method applies parabolic blends around waypoints to improve speed. In contrast to established methods that smooth trajectories with parabolic blends, our method does not require the timing of waypoints or durations of blend phases. This makes our approach particularly useful for robots that must follow kinematic paths that are not explicitly parametrized by time. Our method chooses timing automatically to achieve high performance while satisfying the velocity and acceleration constraints of a given robot.
