Motion planning for triple-axis spectrometers

We present the free and open source software TAS-Paths, a novel system which calculates optimal, collision-free paths for the movement of triple-axis spectrometers. The software features an easy to use graphical user interface, but can also be scripted and used as a library. It allows the user to plan and visualise the motion of the instrument before the experiment and can be used during measurements to circumvent obstacles. The instrument path is calculated in an angular configuration space in order to keep a maximum angular distance from any obstacle. & COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).