Laplacian Trajectory Vector Fields for Robotic Movement Imitation and Adaption

Abstract

Vector field methods for trajectory following are generally computed offline before execution and thus only applicable to static trajectories. In contrast this paper introduces Laplacian trajectory vector fields (LTVF) as a computationally efficient method for creating convergent vector fields towards a discretized reference trajectory. In case of environmental changes both the vector field and the reference trajectory can be quickly recomputed. The conducted experiment uses a HRP-4 robot in order to display the applicability to daily life problems.