A method is presented for generating the path that significantly reduces residual vibration of the redundant, flexible robot manipulator in the presence of obstacles. The desired path is optimally designed so that the system completes the required move with minimum residual vibration, avoiding obstacles. The dynamic model and optimal path are effectively formulated and computed by using a special moving coordinate, called VLCS, to represent the link flexibility. The path to be designed is developed by a combined Fourier series and polynomial function to satisfy both the convergence and boundary condition matching problems. The concept of correlation coefficients is used to select the minimum number of design variables. A planar three-link manipulator is used to evaluate this method. Results show that residual vibration can be drastically reduced by selecting an appropriate path, in the presence of obstacles.