F VESELY COMP PHYS U VIENNA

---

	Autonomous Robot Drawing a Square
		A 2D manipulator with 4 degrees of freedom was given the task of tracing a square. To make things more interesting, an obstacle (black) was placed nearby. Using the "Constrained Kinematics / Stochastic Optimization" (CKSO) algorithm, the optimal kinematic procedure was quickly found. In short, the CSKO method (Kastenmeier & Vesely 1996) consists in - advancing, at each time step, the end link ("grip") of the manipulator further along the desired track; - having the limbs and joints adjust themselves in such a way as to minimize (a) the angular accelerations (mechanical wear!) and (b) any undesirable proximity to the obstacle. The momentary cost function combining these requirements is drawn in the bottom graph. Read more...