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Understanding Configuration Space in Robotics

Configuration space is a mathematical framework used to represent all possible positions a robot can achieve in motion planning problems. It includes the concept of configuration space obstacles, which are regions that cannot be attained due to fixed obstacles, while the remaining space is termed freespace. The task of planning a path for a robot involves navigating through this configuration space from a starting to an end configuration.

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17 views18 pages

Understanding Configuration Space in Robotics

Configuration space is a mathematical framework used to represent all possible positions a robot can achieve in motion planning problems. It includes the concept of configuration space obstacles, which are regions that cannot be attained due to fixed obstacles, while the remaining space is termed freespace. The task of planning a path for a robot involves navigating through this configuration space from a starting to an end configuration.

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janeeshaneef9
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Configuration Space

Cspace Intro

SECTION 2.1
Intro

• In the motion planning problems we have


considered so far we have basically reduced
the problem to planning on a graph where the
robot can take on various discrete positions
which we can enumerate and connect by
edges.
• In practice most of the robots that we build
can move continuously through space.
Configuration space is a handy mathematical
and conceptual tool which was developed to
help us think about these kinds of problems in
a unified framework.
• Basically the configuration space of a robot is
the set of all configurations and or positions
that the robot can attain.
• This slide shows a simple example of a robot
that can translate freely in the plane. Here we
can quantify the positions that the robot can
take on with a tuple (tx, ty) which denotes the
coordinates of a particular reference point on
the robot with respect to a fixed coordinate
frame of reference.
Simple Robot – Translation in the Plane
• Here are a couple of configurations that this
translating robot can take on along with the
associated coordinates.
Simple Robot – Translation in the Plane
Simple Robot – Translation in the Plane
Simple Robot – Translation in the Plane
• In this case we would say that our robot has
two degrees of freedom and we can associate
the configuration space of the robot with the
points on the 2D plane – namely these (tx,ty)
coordinates.
Adding an Obstacle
• Now we will make the story a little bit more interesting
by introducing fixed obstacles into our model.
• What these obstacles do is make certain configurations
in the configuration space unobtainable. This figure
shows the (tx,ty) configurations that the robot CANNOT
attain because of the obstacle
• This set of configurations that the robot cannot inhabit
is referred to as a CONFIGURATION SPACE OBSTACLE.
• Conversely the region of configuration space that is
outside of the configuration space obstacle is termed
freespace.
• On the right hand side of this figure we plot the
configuration space obstacle corresponding to the
geometric obstacle shown in the left half.
• Again the C-space obstacle denotes the set of
configurations that the robot CANNOT attain because
of collision with the obstacle.
Configuration Space Obstacle
• Note that the dimensions and shape of the
configuration space obstacle are obtained by
considering both the obstacle and the shape of
the robot.
• More formally the configuration space obstacle
in this case is the Minkowski sum of the
obstacle
• If we have multiple obstacles in space we can
visualize the union of all of the configuration
space obstacles and we get a picture like this.
• Again the configuration of the robot
corresponds to a point in the space and the
dark areas correspond to configurations that
the robot cannot attain.
Configuration Space Obstacles
• In this setting the task of planning a path for
our robot correspond to planning a trajectory
through configuration space from the starting
configuration to the end configuration.

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