Diverse Workspace Path Planning for Robot Manipulators

Abstract

We present a novel algorithm that generates a set of diverse workspace paths for manipulators. By considering more than one possible path we give our manipulator the flexibility to choose from many possible ways to execute a task. This is particularly important in cases in which the best workspace path cannot be executed by the manipulator (e.g. due to the presence of obstacles that collide with the manipulator links). Our workspace paths are generated such that a distance metric between them is maximized, allowing them to span different workspace regions. Manipulator planners mostly focus on solving the problem by analyzing the configuration space (e.g. Jacobian-based methods); our approach focuses on analyzing alternative workspace paths which are comparable to the optimal solution in terms of length. This paper introduces our intuitive algorithm and also presents the results of a series of experiments performed with a simulated 7 DOF robotic arm.