A Generic Framework for Controlling Bi-Handed Robotic Manipulator

From design to implementation, bi-handed humanoid manipulators are more complex than common industrial robots. Humanoid manipulators have the properties of redundancy and bifurcation, which enable placement of multiple hands or tools at desired positions and orientations within the robot’s workspace in an unlimited number of ways. To address and benefit from these complexities, Energid Technologies has developed a generic XML-based control method supporting virtually any number of degrees of freedom, any type of end-effector constraint, any type of joint, and any optimization criterion for fixed and mobile robots. This paper will address how this technology works, the problems it solves, its ongoing application as a software toolkit accessible to the robotics community.