Techniques for automatically programming behavior may also exploit these forms of structure. An artificial Hamiltonian is constructed using the kinetic energy in the manipulator and the artificial harmonic potential to regulate the overall system energy. Level sets in the energy field define regions to which the system is confined. An interactive demo of this approach can be found here . Grupen In conjunction with Prof. Burleson in the ECE department at UMass, Amherst, we are investigating the potential for exploiting parallelism in motion planning algorithms.
Estimates indicate considerable promise for real-time path planning.
With improved bandwidth, the path planner is capable of tracking moving constraints. Grupen et al. Rather than tactile arrays, we are studying the sensory signature of a contact in position, velocity, and force domain information. Contact hypotheses can be derived by recognizing displacements of the manipulator which are consistent with hypothetical geometric constraints. These hypotheses can be corroborated by identifying loads in the manipulator which are consistent with reaction forces at the contact hypotheses.