Patent ID: 8676382

Claim:
A robotic system comprising: a robotic mechanism responsive to velocity control signals, wherein the robotic mechanism has at least two degrees of freedom and a permissible workspace defined by respective axes of the robotic mechanism; and a host machine configured to control an operation of the robotic mechanism, and to apply a convex-polygon boundary to the permissible workspace, wherein the boundary has a centroid and is defined by multiple edges and corner points, and includes a buffer that is surrounded by the multiple edges, wherein the host machine includes an algorithm, the execution of which by the host machine causes the host machine to: determine a position of a reference point on the robotic mechanism with respect to the boundary; divide the workspace into a plurality of arc segments defined by line segments drawn radially-outward from the centroid to the corner points; and enforce the boundary by automatically shaping the velocity control signals as a function of the position of the reference point with respect to the buffer, the corner points, and the line segments using an arc segment test, thereby providing a smooth and unperturbed operation of the robotic mechanism along the edges and corners of the boundary.