Motion trajectory planning for a multi-link manipulator in an unknown environment based on ant colony optimization

Authors: Goritov A. N., Goncharov K. V.

Annotation: Robotic manipulators are widely used in various fields of human activity. Accomplishment of many practically important tasks involves operation in an external environment containing objects that limit the workspace of a manipulator. These tasks are further complicated by the fact that number, position and dimensions of objects in an external environment are unknown. This data can only be acquired while making the trajectory plan. In this paper, a motion planning algorithm for a multi-link manipulator based on ant colony optimization, that is represented in a metaheuristic framework applied to a wide class of graph problems, is proposed. The results obtained with the proposed algorithm with various sets of parameters are analyzed, and the recommendations on parameter selection for efficient solution of a planning problem are given based on analysis.

Keywords: robotic manipulator, trajectory planning, trajectory, unknown environment, obstacles, ant colony optimization