Collision-free path planning based on new navigation function for an industrial robotic manipulator in human-robot coexistence environments. (17th August 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Chan, Chun-Chieh; Tsai, Ching-Chih
• Is Part Of: Journal of the Chinese Institute of Engineers. Volume 43:Number 6(2020)
• Page Start: 508
• Page End: 518
• Publication Date: 2020-08-17
• Subjects: Collision-free path planning -- human-robot coexistence -- local minima; Technology -- Periodicals; Engineering -- Periodicals; 620.005
• DOI: 10.1080/02533839.2020.1771210
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0253-3839

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a method for real-time collision-free path planning that uses a new navigation function for environments in which humans and robots cooperate or coexist, which guarantees the safety of a human operator who works with a collaborative robot. This method follows 10 skeletal joints in a human operator, which are detected using an RGB-D sensor, in order to detect humans. A new navigation function ensures collision-free planning for a robotic manipulator that avoids local minima and generates a shorter path. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method in comparison to two existing methods. The applicability and practicability of the proposed method are demonstrated by experiments using a 6-DoF industrial manipulator HIWIN RA605 with an RGB-D vision sensor (Kinect V1), a real-time operation system extension (RTX64) and an EtherCAT network protocol.