2025/06/25 by Marc-Philip Ecker, Bernhard Bischof, Ecker, Marc-Philip +9 · 1 citation
Engineering · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Innovations in Concrete and Construction Materials #Robotic Mechanisms and Dynamics #Robotics (cs.RO) #Soil Mechanics and Vehicle Dynamics
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2506.20314
openalex publication_date 2025/06/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/09 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Efficient, collision-free motion planning is essential for automating large-scale manipulators like timber cranes. They come with unique challenges such as hydraulic actuation constraints and passive joints-factors that are seldom addressed by current motion planning methods. This paper introduces a novel approach for time-optimal, collision-free hybrid motion planning for a hydraulically actuated timber crane with passive joints. We enhance the via-point-based stochastic trajectory optimization (VP-STO) algorithm to include pump flow rate constraints and develop a novel collision cost formulation to improve robustness. The effectiveness of the enhanced VP-STO as an optimal single-query global planner is validated by comparison with an informed RRT* algorithm using a time-optimal path parameterization (TOPP). The overall hybrid motion planning is formed by combination with a gradient-based local planner that is designed to follow the global planner's reference and to systematically consider the passive joint dynamics for both collision avoidance and sway damping.