Sampling-Based Motion Planning under Kinematic Loop-Closure Constraints

Abstract

Kinematic loop-closure constraints significantly increase the difficulty of motion planning for articulated mechanisms. Configurations of closed-chain mechanisms do not form a single manifold, easy to parameterize, as the configurations of open kinematic chains. In general, they are grouped into several subsets with complex and a priori unknown topology. Sampling-based motion planning algorithms cannot be directly applied to such closed-chain systems. This paper describes our recent work [7] on the extension of sampling-based planners to treat this kind of mechanisms.