AbstractA technique for path tracking with the links of a planar hyper‐redundant robotic manipulator is presented. It is a joint‐space trajectory planning method that can be used for obstacle avoidance by ensuring that the links of the manipulator closely follow a collision‐free path planned for the tool. A closed‐form formulation of resolved‐motion rate control equations is developed that decomposes the manipulator into proximal and distal parts. The joint velocities are constrained to ensure that the far distal links remain tangent to the tool path, while the near distal links and the proximal links assume a compressed configuration near the base. Path tracking is illustrated with several examples that examine the effects of controller gain, link length, and number of links. ©1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.