19EE5803

UNIT-4
Path Planning
PREPARED BY
S.CHITHRA
DEFINITION
 Path planning is a robotics field on its own.
 Its solution gives a feasible collision-free path for going from one
place to another.
 Path planning is an important primitive for autonomous mobile
robots that lets robots find the shortest or otherwise optimal path
between two points .
 Path planning requires a map of the environment and the robot to be
aware of its location with respect the map
Goals of Path Planning
 The goals of the path planning are
 Introduce suitable map representation
 Explain basic path-planning algorithms
 Introduce variation of the path planning problem, such as
coverage path planning
 Map representation have two complementary approaches:
discrete and continuous approximations.
 In a discrete approximation, a map is sub-divided into chunks of equal
(e.g., a grid or hexagonal map) or differing sizes (e.g., rooms in a
building). The latter maps are also known as topological maps. Discrete
maps lend themselves well to a graph representation. Here, every
chunk of the map corresponds to a vertex (also known as “node”),
which are connected by edges, if a robot can navigate from one vertex
to the other.
 For example a road-map is a topological map, with intersections as
vertices and roads as edges. Computationally, a graph might be stored
as an adjacency or incidence list/matrix.
 A continuous approximation requires the definition of inner (obstacles)
and outer boundaries, typically in the form of a polygon, whereas paths
can be encoded as sequences of real numbers. Discrete maps are the
dominant representation in robotics.
 The problem to find a “shortest” path from one vertex to
another through a connected graph is of interest in multiple
domains, most prominently in the internet, where it is used to
find an optimal route for a data packet.
 The term “shortest” refers here to the minimum cumulative
edge cost, which could be physical distance (in a robotic
application), delay (in a networking application) or any other
metric that is important for a specific application.
PATH AND TRAJECTORY PLANNING

 Path and trajectory planning means the way that a robot is moved
from one location to another in a controlled manner.

· The sequence of movements for a controlled movement between

motion segment, in straight-line motion or in sequential motions.

 It requires the use of both kinematics and dynamics of robots.

PATH VS TRAJECTORY
 Path: A sequence of robot configurations in a particular order
without regard to the timing of these configurations.
 Trajectory: It concerned about when each part of the path must
be attained, thus specifying timing.

Fig. 5.1 Sequential robot movements in a path.

 JOINT SPACE TECHNIQUE
JOINT-SPACE VS CARTESIAN-SPACE DESCRIPTIONS
· Joint-space description:
- The description of the motion to be made by the robot by its joint
values.
- The motion between the two points is unpredictable.

Sequential motions of a robot

to follow a straight line.
Cartesian space description:
- The motion between the two points is known at all times and
controllable.
- It is easy to visualize the trajectory, but is is difficult to ensure
that singularity

Cartesian-space trajectory (a) The trajectory

specified in Cartesian coordinates may force the
robot to run into itself, and (b) the trajectory may
requires a sudden change in the joint angles.
JOINT-SPACE TRAJECTORY PLANNING

Third-Order Polynomial Trajectory Planning

 How the motions of a robot can be planned in joint-space with

controlled characteristics.
 Polynomials of different orders
 Linear functions with parabolic blends
 The initial location and orientation of the robot is known, and using the inverse
kinematic equations, we find the final joint angles for the desired position and
orientation.

 (t )  c0  c1t  c2t 2  c3t 3

 (ti )  c0   i
 (ti )   i
 (t f )  c0  c1t f  c2t 2f  c3t 3f
 (t f )   f
 (t )  c  0
 (t )  0  (t )  c1  2c2t  3c3t 2 i 1
i
 First derivative of the  (t f )  c1  2c2t f  3c3t 2f  0
 (t f )  0 polynomial of equation
 Initial Condition  Substituting the initial
and final conditions
Example

 It is desired to have the first joint of a six-axis robot go from initial angle of 30o to a final angle
of 75o in 5 seconds. Using a third-order polynomial, calculate the joint angle at 1, 2 3, and 4
seconds.

 (t )  c0  c1t  c2t 2  c3t 3

 (0)  c0  30

 (0)  c1  0
JOINT-SPACE TRAJECTORY PLANNING
Fifth-Order Polynomial Trajectory Planning

 Specify the initial and ending accelerations for a segment.

· To use a fifth-order polynomial for planning a trajectory,
the total number of boundary conditions is 6.
 Calculation of the coefficients of a fifth-order polynomial
with position, velocity and a acceleration boundary conditions
can be possible with below equations.
 (t )  c0  c1t  c2t 2  c3t 3  c4t 4  c5t 5
 (t )  c1  2c2t  3c3t 2
(t )  2c2  6c3t  12c4t 2  20c5t 3
USE OF P- DEGREE
POLYNOMIAL
 Functions can be obtained by properly composing segments defined
with polynomial functions of different degree (piecewise polynomial
functions).
 In these cases, it is necessary to define an adequate number of
conditions (boundary conditions, point crossing, continuity of velocity,
acceleration, ...), as done
 e.g. for the computation of trapezoidal (linear segments with second or
higher degree polynomials blends) and ‘double S’ trajectories.
 For example, in pick-and-place operations by an industrial robot it may be
of interest to have motions with very smooth initial and final phases. In
such a case, one can use a motion profile obtained as the connection of
three polynomials ql (t), qt (t), qs (t)
 In general, the problem of defining a function interpolating a
set of n points can be solved with a polynomial function of
degree n − 1.
 In planning a trajectory, this approach does not give good
results since the resulting motions in general present large
oscillations.
 The (unique) polynomial p(x) with degree n − 1 interpolating n
points (xi, yi) can be computed by the Lagrange expression:
 Another (less efficient) approach for the computation of the
coefficients of the polynomial p(x) is based on the following
procedure:
CUBIC POLYNOMIAL
 Consider the problem of moving the tool from its initial position to
a goal position in a certain amount of time.
 Inverse kinematics allow the set of joint angles that correspond to
the goal position and orientation to be calculated.
 The initial position of the manipulator is also known in the form of
a set of joint angles
 What is required is a function for each joint whose value at t0
is the initial position of the joint and whose value at tf is the
desired goal position of that joint. As shown in the following
figure, there are many smooth functions, θ(t), that might be
used to interpolate (estimate) the joint value.
 • In making a single smooth motion, at least four constraints
on θ(t) are evident. Two constraints on the function's value
come from the selection of initial and final values:

 An additional two constraints are that the function be

continuous in velocity, which in this case means that the
initial and final velocity are zero:
 These four constraints can be satisfied by a polynomial of at
least third degree. (A cubic polynomial has four coefficients,
so it can be made to satisfy the four previous constraints)
 These constraints uniquely specify a particular cubic. A cubic
has the form:

 so the joint velocity and acceleration along this path are

clearly:
 Combining these equations with the previous four desired
constraints yields four equations in four unknowns:
 Solving these equations for the ai , we obtain:

 Using these equations, we can calculate the cubic polynomial that

connects any initial joint angle position with any desired final
position. This solution is for the case when the joint starts and
finishes at zero velocity
Example:
 A single-link robot with a rotary joint is motionless at θ = 15 degrees.
It is desired to move the joint in a smooth manner to θ = 75 degrees
in 3 seconds. Find the coefficients of a cubic that accomplishes this
motion and brings the manipulator to rest at the goal. Plot the
position, velocity, and acceleration of the joint as a function of time.
CARTESIAN SPACE TECHNIQUE
 In general, the trajectory planning methods proposed in the joint
space can be applied also in the Cartesian space n consider
independently each component of the task vector (i.e., a position or
an angle of a minimal representation of orientation)
 when planning a trajectory for the three orientation angles, the
resulting global motion cannot be intuitively visualized in advance
n if possible, we still prefer to plan Cartesian trajectories separately
for position and orientation
 The number of knots to be interpolated in the Cartesian space is
typically low (e.g., 2 knots for a PTP motion, 3 if a “via point” is
added) ⇒ use simple interpolating paths, such as straight lines, arc
of circles, …
PARAMETRIC DESCRIPTION
 Another choice of path shape is linear. That is, we simply
interpolate linearly to move from the present joint position to
the final position as shown in the figure.
 Remember that, although the motion of each joint in this
scheme is linear, the end-effector in general does not move in
a straight line in space.
 However, straightforward linear interpolation would cause the
velocity to be discontinuous at the beginning and end of the
motion.
 To create a smooth path with continuous position and velocity, we
start with the linear function but add a parabolic blend region at
each path point.
 During the blend portion of the trajectory, constant acceleration is
used to change velocity smoothly
 The following figure shows a simple path constructed in this way.
The linear function and the two parabolic functions are "splined"
together so that the entire path is continuous in position and
velocity.
 In order to construct this single segment, we will assume that the
parabolic blends both have the same duration; therefore, the same
constant acceleration is used during both blends.
 As indicated in the following figure, there are many solutions to
the problem, but note that the answer is always symmetric about
the halfway point in time, th , and about the halfway point in
position, θh
 The velocity at the end of the blend region must equal the
velocity of the linear section, and so we have
STRAIGHT LINE AND CIRCULAR
PATHS
Cartesian Straight line Motion
Cartesian Circular Motion
POSITION PLANNING
 Trajectories can include via points – Pass close to but not
necessarily pass through – (knot points in b-splines: graphics)
 E.g. straight line paths connected by via point – Both position
and orientation have to be interpolated
 The initial conditions p0 , p1 , p2 , t1 and t2 are all specified.
 We now consider the position and velocity constraints of the
transition points
ORIENTATION PLANNING
 The rotational transition is found by finding the equivalent
axis of rotation k
 R0 is the start orientation, R1 the orientation at the via point
and R2 the orientation at the goal
 The rotation about k1 and k2 can be made a linear function of
time
 Rotation along the straight lines