A general framework for managing multiple tasks in highly redundant robotic systems

The exploitation of kinematic redundancies in robotic systems may provide more dexterity and versatility in the execution of complex tasks. When functional constraint tasks are imposed in addition to the end-effector tasks, a task priority strategy is advisable. The authors propose a general framework for managing multiple tasks in highly redundant systems. In particular, they derive joint velocity and acceleration solutions which can be used as reference input trajectories to suitable model-based controllers. They also develop a recursive implementation, and discuss the occurrence of singularities in the Jacobian associated with the generic task. Two case studies illustrate the effectiveness of the algorithm on a snake-like robot.>