Robot manipulator path planning based on intelligent multi-resolution potential field

Robot path planning is an important part of the development of autonomous systems. Numerous strategies have been proposed in the literature regarding mobile robots but trajectory planning for manipulators is considerably more difficult since the entire structure can move and therefore produce collisions with surrounding obstacles. This paper presents an original solution and analytical comparison to path planning for manipulator arms. Path planning is executed in two parts: first, a global path is found to guide the end-effector in the environment using artificial potential fields and multi-resolution occupancy grids, then, a local path is determined for the entire robot structure by considering the kinematics of the robot as well as the repulsive forces of nearby obstacles in a fuzzy logic controller. Results are shown from a simulator that has been built for this purpose. The contribution of this research is to develop a robust solution for path planning with collision avoidance: one that can be used for various manipulator arms and environment configurations. © 2015 SERSC.