Optimal Robotic Assembly Planning Using Dijkstra’s Algorithm

Robots play an important role in the modern factory and are used in a manufacturing cell for several functions such as assembly, material handling, robotic welding, etc. One of the principal problems faced by robots while performing their tasks is the presence of obstacles such as fixtures, tools, and objects in the robot workspace. Such objects could result in a collision with one of the arms of the robots. Fast collision-free motion planning algorithms are therefore necessary for robotic manipulators to operate in a wide variety of changing environments. The configuration space approach is one of the widely used methods for collision-free robotic path planning. This paper presents a novel graph-based method of searching the configuration space for a collision-free path in a robotic assembly operation. Dijkstra’s graph search algorithm is used for optimizing the joint displacements of the robot while performing the assembly task. The methodology is illustrated using a simple robotic assembly planning task.