Continuous Genetic Algorithms for Collision-Free Cartesian Path Planning of Robot Manipulators

A novel continuous genetic algorithm (CGA) along with distance algorithm for solving collisions-free path planning problem for robot manipulators is presented in this paper. Given the desired Cartesian path to be followed by the manipulator, the robot configuration as described by the D-H parameters, and the available stationary obstacles in the workspace of the manipulator, the proposed approach will autonomously select a collision free path for the manipulator that minimizes the deviation between the generated and the desired Cartesian path, satisfy the joints limits of the manipulator, and maximize the minimum distance between the manipulator links and the obstacles. One of the main features of the algorithm is that it avoids the manipulator kinematic singularities due to the inclusion of forward kinematics model in the calculations instead of the inverse kinematics. The new robot path planning approach has been applied to two different robot configurations; 2R and PUMA 560, as non-redundant manipulators. Simulation results show that the proposed CGA will always select the safest path avoiding obstacles within the manipulator workspace regardless of whether there is a unique feasible solution, in terms of joint limits, or there are multiple feasible solutions. In addition to that, the generated path in Cartesian space will be of very minimal deviation from the desired one.