Patent ID: 8185265

Claim:
A path planning device for planning a position and posture path of a control target in a motion space from a present position and posture to a target position and posture, comprising: an initial position and posture path acquiring unit which acquires an initial position and posture path including a plurality of nodes connecting the present position and posture of the control target to the target position and posture, and which configures a rigid body corresponding to the control target in each node in the position and posture path; an interference detector which detects an interference with the control target in the position and posture path by an obstruction existing in the motion space; an external force calculator which calculates external forces for each of a plurality of rigid bodies based on a dynamic model that uses the external forces to express a requirement for smoothing the position and posture path and for avoiding the interference by the obstruction, the dynamic model modeling each of the plurality of rigid bodies as a virtue rigid body plane not having a volume; and a multi rigid body system dynamics simulation unit which performs a multi rigid body system dynamics simulation on a plurality of equations of rigid body motion representing coupled motions of the plurality of rigid bodies on which the external forces calculated by the external force calculator act, respectively, and which acquires positions and postures of the control target at times corresponding to the nodes in the position and posture path on a basis of positions and postures of the rigid bodies when the path is convergent to a predetermined state.