A Practical Trajectory Planning Method for Smooth and Fast Xylophone Playing with a Six-Axis Robotic Arm

One major challenge in enabling a six-axis robotic arm to play the xylophone is generating smooth trajectories that prevent motor overload during high-speed performance. This paper proposes two practical trajectory planning strategies-fluid trajectory and low-variation trajectory-based on a hybrid use of bang-bang trajectories and cubic polynomial trajectories. It also presents a complete solution addressing key implementation details, such as connection point pose optimization and IK branch selection. Experiments demonstrate that the fluid trajectory offers more graceful motion, adapting visually to rhythmic changes in music, while the low-variation trajectory reduces joint movement near the base, thereby suppressing vibration-induced noise during fast motions.