Collision avoidance: divide-and-conquer approach by space characterization and intermediate goals

An efficient method that finds collision-free paths for a manipulator with six revolute joints is described. A global structure of the free space in the three-dimensional (3-D) joint space of the arm of a large open space in the workspace, defined as a space where any orientation of the hand is possible, is represented in this description.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">></ETX>