Coupled Path and Motion Planning for a Rover-Manipulator System

ThisPlanning \b paper introduces a motion planningPlanning \b strategy aimed at the coordination of a rover and manipulator. The main purpose is to fetch samples of scientific interest that could be placed on difficult locations, requiring to maximize the workspace of the combined system. In order to validate this strategy, a simulation environmentEnvironment \b has been built, based on the VORTEX Studio platform. A virtualVirtualvirtual robot \i model of the ExoTeR rover prototype, owned by the European Space Agency, has been used together with the same robot control software. Finally, we show in this paper the benefits of validating the proposed strategy on simulation, prior to its future use on the real experimental rover.