UNIT IV PATH PLANNING

Trajectory Planning:
The end effector or manipulator is required to move in a particular fashion to
accomplish a specified task. Trajectory planning is to describe the requisite motion
of the manipulator as a time sequence of joint/link/end effector locations and
derivatives of locations, which are generated by “interpolating” or
“approximating” the desired path by a polynomial function.These time base
sequence of locations, also called time law or time history, obtained from the
trajectory planning as reference input or “control set points” to the manipulators
control system. The control system assures that the manipulator executes the
planned trajectories.
• Trajectory planning for
– Point to point motion
– Continuous motion
Main objectives of trajectory planning algorithm is to achieve a smooth motion of
the manipulator. A smooth function is one that is continuous and has a continuous
first derivative. Smooth motion has the important advantage of reducing the
vibrations and wear of the mechanical system.
• Joint space
• Cartesian space
Trajectory planning problem
• Trajectory planner generates a time sequence of intermediate configurations
expressed in either joint space or cartesian coordinate frames.
• Figure shows the parameters involved in trajectory planning problem.
Terminologies:
Path : Path is the locus of points(either in the joint space or in cartesian space) to be
traversed by the manipulator to execute the specified task. A path is a purely
geometric description of the motion.
Trajectory:
A trajectory is a path with specified qualities of motion, that is, a path on which a
time law is specified in terms of velocities and accelerations at each point.Trajectory
is the time sequence of position, velocity and acceleration for each joint or end
effector of the manipulator.
Knot points or via points or interpolation points:
They are the set of intermediate locations between the start and goal points on the
trajectory through which a manipulator must pass enroute to the destination.
Joint Space Trajectory Planning: Each path joint is specified in terms of a desired
position and orientation of the end effector frame relative to the base frame. Each of
these point is converted in to a set of desired joint position by applications of inverse
kinematics. A smooth function is then found for each of the joints, which passes
through these points.
Cartesian space Trajectory Planning : In this, the path is explicitly specified in the
cartesian space. The path constraints such as velocity, acceleration etc. are specified
in cartesian co-ordinates and the joint actuators are served in joint coordinates to the
specified trajectory
Trajectory Generation : It is the act of computing the trajectory as a time sequence
of values in real time, using the trajectory planning algorithm based on the spatial
and temporal constraints.
Path update rate : The rate which the trajectory points are computed at run time is
called path update rate.
Steps in trajectory planning
Trajectory planning can be dived in to three steps.
1. Task description: Identifying the kind of motion required is the first step.
Specification of requisite trajectory is the input to the trajectory planning
problem. These tasks can be grouped in to two types
➢ Point to point motion (PTP)
➢ No particular specification about the intermediate location
of the end effector is not given and the planner is free to
formulate any convenient path. Here, user specifies only
the goal point
 ➢ Continuous path motion (CP)
➢ In addition to the start and end point, a specified path
between them is required to be traced by the end effector in
cartesian space, this is called continuous path (CP) motion
of trajectory.(eg: welding, plotting)
2.Selecting and employing a trajectory planning technique
Joint space technique
➢ Used in the case of Point to point motion (with or without intermediate point)
➢ This scheme generates time depended function of all joint variables and their
first two derivatives to describe the desired motion of the manipulator
Cartesian space technique
➢ Used for applications requiring continuous path motion.
➢ Provides time history of the location, velocity and acceleration of the end
effector with respect to the base.
➢ Corresponding joint variables and their derivatives are computed using inverse
kinematics.
3.Computing the trajectory
Final step is to compute the time sequence of values attained by the functions
generated from the trajectory planning technique. These values are computed at a
particular path update or sampling rate. The path update rate lies between 20Hz and
200Hz in typical industrial manipulators
Joint Space Technique
• The values of joint variables have to be determined from the end effector
location specified by the user.
• Joint space techniques are used for point- to- point motion with or without via
points and each path point is specified by the end effector position and
orientation with respect to the base in cartesian space.
Cubic Polynomial trajectories:
1. Point- to-point motion without via points:
In this scheme, the goal point and travel time are specified by the user. The set of
joint-variable values for the given goal point are obtained from the inverse
kinematics. It is assumed that the joint-variable values corresponding to the initial
location of the end-effector ate
A cubic trajectory is obtained for each joint variable, q(t), of the joint variable q. n-
DOF manipulator. The determination of the interpolation cubic polynomial is carried out
for each of the n-joint variables.
 For a smooth motion between the initial and goal points, the functions q(t) and q·(t)
have to be smooth. This requirement imposes two constraints each on the joint
position and velocity functions. Further, q(t) is zero for t < 0 and t>tg. This along with
the continuity requirements gives the four constraints as,

(3)
To satisfy these four constraints, the polynomial q(t) must be of order three, that
is, a cubic polynomial with four coefficients. This justifies our assumption that a
cubic polynomial would give a smooth motion profile for joint variable q.
Therefore, to describe the joint motion, assume that the cubic polynomial is,

(4)
Which gives a parabolic velocity profile,

(5)
And a linear acceleration profile,

(6)
Applying the constraints of Eq. (3) to Eqs. (4) and (5), gives the
following set of four equations in four unknowns:

(7)
The solution of Eq. (7) gives the coefficients of cubic polynomial, as

(8)
Thus, the cubic polynomial to interpolate the path connecting the initial joint
position to final joint position is,

(9)
This solution is for the case when velocity is zero for both starting and
finishing point.
The acceleration profile, though linear, has discontinuity at initial and final
position and moton will be jerky at the start and at the goal point due to this.
The variation of the joint variable, velocity and acceleration are shown in
figure.

2. Point- to -point motion with Via points: (Determining the cubic that
connects the given “k" path points smoothly)
For a path with ‘k’ path points , there are (k-2) intermediate or via points
and (k-1) polynomials are required to connect the path points in a smooth
way.
Usually each path point is specified in terms of the desired end effector
position and orientation. Each of these path points are transformed in to
a set of joint variable vaues by inverse kinematics.
qj – value taken by the joint variable q corresponding to path point j and
cubic polynomial connecting the path points j and (j+1) is Pj(t). This
cubic is defined in the time interval tj-1<t<tj with Tj =tj-tj-1 denoting the
travel time between the path points j and (j+1). These time interval for k
path point with (k-2) via points are shown below.The total travel time
for the path is T(=tg) with ,

(10)
 Thus the joint function , q(t) for the entire path over the time interval
0<t<T is defined by (k-1)polynomial as,

(11)

For smooth trajectory at each via point, additional constraints are

required. Once these constraints are specitied, the (k—1) cubic
polynomials are determined.
Linear Function with Parabolic Blend:
Another possible trajectory is to use linear interpolation from start to
goal point. This would cause the velocity to be discontinuous at the
beginning and end of motion and would require infinite acceleration.
Also in the case of cubic trajectory for PTP motion without via points,
the discontinuity of acceleration at the end-points is observed and the
acceleration is not physically realizable. One method to avoid this
difficulty is to use higher degree polynomial with more constraints,
requiring more complex computations. Alternately, it is possible to use
a blended polynomial, which allows for verification whether the
resulting velocities and accelerations can be supported by the physical
machanical manipulator.
A trapezoidal velocity profile imposes a constant acceleration in start
phase, a cruise velocity, and a constant deceleration in the final phase.
The resulting trajectory has a linear segment with parabolic segments at
 both ends.In general , a blended trajectory is constructed using
polynomial interpolation functions at both ends, which are splined
together so that the entire path has continuity of position and velocity
including the smooth motion at resulting points.
Blended Trajectory for point-to- point motion without via points:
For a given start and target points, a smooth trajectory which consists
of a linear segment and parabolic blends near the end points is used.
During the blend portion of the trajectory, constant acceleration is used to
achieve a smooth velocity transition.Two parabolic blends are assumed to
be identical, that is they have the same constant acceleration. Therefore
parabolic blends near the path points are of same duration and the whole
trajectory is symmetric about the half way position(tm,qm)
The user inputs is the target position, travel time, initial point and
constant blend acceleration.

As can be seen from Fig. the constraints are: both the initial and final
velocities are zero and the joint position profile is symmetrical about the point
(qm, tm) with

(1)
The trajectory has to satisfy the additional constraint for smooth transition
from parabolic blend to linear segment. For joint velocity to be continuous,
velocity at the end of the first blend (or beginning of second blend) must be
equal to velocity of the Iinear segment, that is. at the blend point (qb,tb)

(2)
 Where qb is the value of the joint variable at the end of the parabolic segment, at time
tb.
For constant acceleration q..c, the joint position qb, at the end of the the first blend is
given by,

(3)
Combining equations (1), (2) and (3) gives the quadratic equation in
tb,

(4)
Solving the equation (4) tb gives,

(5)
The constraint on the choice of acceleration during the blend is,

(6)
Solution to equation (4) will not exist if the above condition is not
satisfied.
When equality occurs in Eq. (6), the two blends meet at tm and there is no linear
or constant velocity segment and only acceleration and deceleration segments are
present, giving a triangular velocity profile.
On the other hand, as the acceleration becomes larger and larger, tb becomes
shorter and shorter. The trajectory tends to linear interpolation with acceleration
tending to infinity or tb tending to zero.
The trapezoidal velocity profile (linear interpolation with parabolic blends)
trajectory using Eq. (5) generates the following sequence of polynomials for the
time history of joint position, velocity and acceleration.
 Blended trajectory for point-to-point motion with via points:
Polynomial with linear-parabolic-blend splines can also be used to
interpolate the given path points points in a smooth way. As shown in ,
a smooth trajectory for a joint variable, q, is constructed with Iinear
function connecting via points, and parabolic blends are added to the linear
segments near the via points.
To maintain the continuity at via points, the parabolic blends of two
segment must also have a smooth transition. This is achieved by choosing
a continuous parabola for the two-blend segments at a via point. The result
of this is that, polynomial q(t) does not touch the via points and the via
points become virtual or pseudo via points. This means that different
methods to compute the blend duration and trajectory for end-points and
for via points have to be employed.

The path points, travel time between successive path points and constant
blend acceleration at path points constitute the input for the problem. The
only missing parameter required to determine the time history of q, q., q..
and is the blend duration at each path point.
Assume that there are £ path points and three consecutive path points are
j, I, and zn. Following notations are defined.
 Cartesian Space Technique
In Cartesian space, the position and orientation of a rigid body can be clearly
defined. The user specifies the desired end-effector path, travelling time and the
tool orientations along the path.
A parametric description for the desired end effector path is required. This
description specifies the the spatial attributes of the requisite motion with respect
to the base frame.

Parametric Description of path

• In parametric representation, a path is represented as a function of single
parameter, time.
• The arc length ‘c’ of the curve is a function of time and can be used as
parameter for the parametric representation of curves.
• Fig. shows the cartesian space path ‘p’ to be tracked be the end-effector of a
given n-DOF manipulator and the base frame {0}. If the path lies in plane,
it is a plane path. Otherwise it is a twisted path. Most tool point trajectories
are twisted path.
Let Ps and Pg be the end points of an open path P and F( C)to be continuous vector
function defined in the interval [Cs, Cg]. The path coordinate ‘c’ of a generic point
P on path is the length of arc of P with points P and Ps. Usually the starting point
on the path Ps is the path coordinate origin and at origin of path, c=0. This means
that for any point P on the path, the path coordinate specifies the arc length of the
path between Ps and P.It then follows that the path coordinate c can be used to
express any point P On the path with respect to frame {0} as,
n
P = F(c)
Note that in Eq., 0P is a 3 x I position vector of point P with respect to frame {0}.
The vector function F(c), thus, analytically expresses any point on the path 'P with
respect to frame {0}. Hence, the path 'P can also be written as 0P = F(c)
Three unit vectors can be used to express point P, which form a right-handed
orthonor mal coordinate system with three orthonormal planes as shown.
A circular path
A circular path p(c ) in Fig. is specified using the following parameters.
Radius of circlar path p in plane x’y’.
Unit vector of the circle axis ,r, at the center of circle, directed according
to right hand rule.
A point D on the axis of circle passing through the centre of. Its position
vector in frame {0} is 0D
Position vector 0Pj in frame {0} of point on the circle
All the above parameters are expressed in terms of base frame{0}
trajectory fOr PTP motion without via points (section 7.2.2), the
discontinuity tif acceleration at the end-points is observed (see Fig.7.4)
and the acceleration is not physically realizable. One method to avoid
this difficulty is to use higher dcyrec polynomial with more constraints,
requiring more complc x compritatit)DS, tt•S djscussed in section
7.2.1. Alternately, it is possible to use a blended pt›lynoinial,
which allows for verification whcther the resulting velocities and
.iccclerali‹›ns can be supported by the physic:i1 in0Chanical
manipulator.
A trapezoidal velocity pi ot’ile, lor example, imposes a constant
acccleratitin in start phase, a cruise velocity, and a constant
deceleration in the final phase, I sec Fig. 7.3). The resulting trajectory
has a linear segment with parabolic segments at both ends. In genei-al,
a blended trajecttiry is con.structed using ptilyntxn iiil