Occupancy array-based kinematic reasoning

This paper presents a technique for kinematic reasoning that is based on the use of occupancy arrays. A description is presented of the algorithm used and a prototype implementation which can reason about the behaviour of higher pairs, that is, parts such as cams and gears, with rotational or translational degrees of freedom. It is shown that by representing the spatial occupancy of objects using appropriately high-resolution occupancy arrays it is possible to reason about higher pair kinematic interactions between objects. Both free and blocked motion can be inferred, and an implementation, KAP, is reported that demonstrates the utility of this approach.

Authors

• Patrick Olivier Toshiyuki Maeda
• Andrew Ormsby
• Keiichi Nakata

Keywords

• Kinematics
• spatial reasoning
• occupancy arrays