scholarly journals Path planning optimization of six-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulators using evolutionary algorithms

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 172988142090807
Author(s):  
Sandi Baressi Šegota ◽  
Nikola Anđelić ◽  
Ivan Lorencin ◽  
Milan Saga ◽  
Zlatan Car

Lowering joint torques of a robotic manipulator enables lowering the energy it uses as well as increase in the longevity of the robotic manipulator. This article proposes the use of evolutionary computation algorithms for optimizing the paths of the robotic manipulator with the goal of lowering the joint torques. The robotic manipulator used for optimization is modelled after a realistic six-degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator. Two cases are observed and these are a single robotic manipulator carrying a weight in a point-to-point trajectory and two robotic manipulators cooperating and moving the same weight along a calculated point-to-point trajectory. The article describes the process used for determining the kinematic properties using Denavit–Hartenberg method and the dynamic equations of the robotic manipulator using Lagrange–Euler and Newton–Euler algorithms. Then, the description of used artificial intelligence optimization algorithms is given – genetic algorithm using random and average recombination, simulated annealing using linear and geometric cooling strategy and differential evolution. The methods are compared and the results show that the genetic algorithm provides best results in regard to torque minimization, with differential evolution also providing comparatively good results and simulated annealing giving the comparatively weakest results while providing smoother torque curves.

Author(s):  
Grant Rudd ◽  
Liam Daly ◽  
Filip Cuckov

Purpose This paper aims to present an intuitive control system for robotic manipulators that pairs a Leap Motion, a low-cost optical tracking and gesture recognition device, with the ability to record and replay trajectories and operation to create an intuitive method of controlling and programming a robotic manipulator. This system was designed to be extensible and includes modules and methods for obstacle detection and dynamic trajectory modification for obstacle avoidance. Design/methodology/approach The presented control architecture, while portable to any robotic platform, was designed to actuate a six degree-of-freedom robotic manipulator of our own design. From the data collected by the Leap Motion, the manipulator was controlled by mapping the position and orientation of the human hand to values in the joint space of the robot. Additional recording and playback functionality was implemented to allow for the robot to repeat the desired tasks once the task had been demonstrated and recorded. Findings Experiments were conducted on our custom-built robotic manipulator by first using a simulation model to characterize and quantify the robot’s tracking of the Leap Motion generated trajectory. Tests were conducted in the Gazebo simulation software in conjunction with Robot Operating System, where results were collected by recording both the real-time input from the Leap Motion sensor, and the corresponding pose data. The results of these experiments show that the goal of accurate and real-time control of the robot was achieved and validated our methods of transcribing, recording and repeating six degree-of-freedom trajectories from the Leap Motion camera. Originality/value As robots evolve in complexity, the methods of programming them need to evolve to become more intuitive. Humans instinctively teach by demonstrating the task to a given subject, who then observes the various poses and tries to replicate the motions. This work aims to integrate the natural human teaching methods into robotics programming through an intuitive, demonstration-based programming method.


Author(s):  
Wenjia Zhang ◽  
Weiwei Shang ◽  
Bin Zhang ◽  
Fei Zhang ◽  
Shuang Cong

The stiffness of the cable-driven parallel manipulator is usually poor because of the cable flexibility, and the existing methods on trajectory planning mainly take the minimum time and the optimal energy into account, not the stiffness. To solve it, the effects of different trajectories on stiffness are studied for a six degree-of-freedom cable-driven parallel manipulator, according to the kinematic model and the dynamic model. The condition number and the minimum eigenvalue of the dimensionally homogeneous stiffness matrix are selected as performance indices to analyze the stiffness changes during the motion. The simulation experiments are implemented on a six degree-of-freedom cable-driven parallel manipulator, to study the stiffness of three different trajectory planning approaches such as S-type velocity profile, quintic polynomial, and trigonometric function. The accelerations of different methods are analyzed, and the stiffness performances for the methods are compared after planning the point-to-point straight and the curved trajectories. The simulation results indicate that the quintic polynomial and S-type velocity profile have the optimal performance to keep the stiffness stable during the motion control and the travel time of the quintic polynomial can be optimized sufficiently while keeping stable.


Author(s):  
Jagat Kishore Pattanaik ◽  
Mousumi Basu ◽  
Deba Prasad Dash

AbstractThis paper presents a comparative study for five artificial intelligent (AI) techniques to the dynamic economic dispatch problem: differential evolution, particle swarm optimization, evolutionary programming, genetic algorithm, and simulated annealing. Here, the optimal hourly generation schedule is determined. Dynamic economic dispatch determines the optimal scheduling of online generator outputs with predicted load demands over a certain period of time taking into consideration the ramp rate limits of the generators. The AI techniques for dynamic economic dispatch are evaluated against a ten-unit system with nonsmooth fuel cost function as a common testbed and the results are compared against each other.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ben Haughey

<p>Development in pick-and-place robotic manipulators continues to grow as factory processes are streamlined. One configuration of these manipulators is the two degree of freedom, planar, parallel manipulator (2DOFPPM). A machine building company, RML Engineering Ltd., wishes to develop custom robotic manipulators that are optimised for individual pick-and-place applications. This thesis develops several tools to assist in the design process. The 2DOFPPM’s structure lends itself to fast and accurate translations in a single plane. However, the performance of the 2DOFPPM is highly dependent on its dimensions. The kinematics of the 2DOFPPM are explored and used to examine the reachable workspace of the manipulator. This method of analysis also gives insight into the relative speed and accuracy of the manipulator’s end-effector in the workspace. A simulation model of the 2DOFPPM has been developed in Matlab’s® SimMechanics®. This allows the detailed analysis of the manipulator’s dynamics. In order to provide meaningful input into the simulation model, a cubic spline trajectory planner is created. The algorithm uses an iterative approach of minimising the time between knots along the path, while ensuring the kinematic and dynamic limits of the motors and end-effector are abided by. The resulting trajectory can be considered near-minimum in terms of its cycle-time. The dimensions of the 2DOFPPM have a large effect on the performance of the manipulator. Four major dimensions are analysed to see the effect each has on the cycle-time over a standardised path. The dimensions are the proximal and distal arms, spacing of the motors and the height of the manipulator above the workspace. The solution space of all feasible combinations of these dimensions is produced revealing cycle-times with a large degree of variation over the same path. Several optimisation algorithms are applied to finding the manipulator configuration with the fastest cycle-time. A random restart hill-climber, stochastic hill-climber, simulated annealing and a genetic algorithm are developed. After each algorithm’s parameters are tuned, the genetic algorithm is shown to outperform the other techniques.</p>


Author(s):  
Abderraouf Maoudj ◽  
Abdelfetah Hentout ◽  
Brahim Bouzouia ◽  
Redouane Toumi

Manipulator robots are widely used in many fields to replace humans in complex and risky environments. However, in some particular environments the robot is prone to failure, resulting in decreased performance. In such environments, it is extremely difficult to repair the robot which interrupts the execution process. Therefore, fault tolerance plays an important role in industrial manipulators applications. In this paper, the key problems related to fault-tolerance and path planning of manipulator robots under joints failures are handled within an on-line fault-tolerant fuzzy-logic based path planning approach for high degree-of-freedom robots. This approach provides an alternative to using mathematical models to control such robots, and improves tolerance to certain faults and mechanical failures. The controller consists of two fuzzy units (i) the first unit, Fuzzy_Path_Planner, is responsible of path planning; (ii) the second unit, Fuzzy_Obstacle_Avoidance, is conceived for obstacles avoidance. Moreover, the proposed approach is capable of repelling the manipulator away from both local minima and limit cycle problems. Finally, to validate the proposed approach and show its performances and effectiveness, different tests are carried out on two six degree-of-freedom manipulator robots (ULM and PUMA560 robots), accomplishing point-to-point tasks, with and without considering some joints failures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ben Haughey

<p>Development in pick-and-place robotic manipulators continues to grow as factory processes are streamlined. One configuration of these manipulators is the two degree of freedom, planar, parallel manipulator (2DOFPPM). A machine building company, RML Engineering Ltd., wishes to develop custom robotic manipulators that are optimised for individual pick-and-place applications. This thesis develops several tools to assist in the design process. The 2DOFPPM’s structure lends itself to fast and accurate translations in a single plane. However, the performance of the 2DOFPPM is highly dependent on its dimensions. The kinematics of the 2DOFPPM are explored and used to examine the reachable workspace of the manipulator. This method of analysis also gives insight into the relative speed and accuracy of the manipulator’s end-effector in the workspace. A simulation model of the 2DOFPPM has been developed in Matlab’s® SimMechanics®. This allows the detailed analysis of the manipulator’s dynamics. In order to provide meaningful input into the simulation model, a cubic spline trajectory planner is created. The algorithm uses an iterative approach of minimising the time between knots along the path, while ensuring the kinematic and dynamic limits of the motors and end-effector are abided by. The resulting trajectory can be considered near-minimum in terms of its cycle-time. The dimensions of the 2DOFPPM have a large effect on the performance of the manipulator. Four major dimensions are analysed to see the effect each has on the cycle-time over a standardised path. The dimensions are the proximal and distal arms, spacing of the motors and the height of the manipulator above the workspace. The solution space of all feasible combinations of these dimensions is produced revealing cycle-times with a large degree of variation over the same path. Several optimisation algorithms are applied to finding the manipulator configuration with the fastest cycle-time. A random restart hill-climber, stochastic hill-climber, simulated annealing and a genetic algorithm are developed. After each algorithm’s parameters are tuned, the genetic algorithm is shown to outperform the other techniques.</p>


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