One of the ultimate goals in robotics is the creation of autonomous robots. Such robots will accept high-level descriptions of tasks and will execute them without further human intervention. The input descriptions will specify what the user wants dome rather than how to do it. The robots will be any kind of versatile mechanical device equipped withg actuators and sensors under the control of a computing system. Developing the technologies necesssary for autonomous robots is a formidable undertaking with deeply woven ramifications in automated reasoning, perception and control. "Robot Motion Planning" discusses a central problem in the development of autonomous robots. Motion planning, the central theme of this book, can be loosely defined as follows: how can a robot decide what motions to perform in order to achieve as a goal the arrangement of physical objects? This capability is eminently necessary since, by definition, a robot accomplishes tasks by moving in the real world. The minimum one would expect from an autonomous robot is the ability to plan its own motions.
This book is aimed at the graduate level student intending to study further in robotics and spatial reasoning, at researchers in robotics, computer-aided design, computer graphics and computational geometry, and at engineers seeking to develop advanced computer-based systems in design, manufacturing, construction and automation.