Reactive path planning for collaborative robot using configuration space skeletonization

Abstract

This paper deals with the problem of on-line and reactive path planning for collaborative robots (cobots). Based on the instantaneous perception of the workspace (provided in this work by a time-of-flight camera), an explicit and real-time construction of the configuration freespace is proposed. To leverage the topological properties of medial axes (graph structure and homotopy preservation), an adapted skeletonization algorithm is then applied, producing a network of safe trajectories, and thus allowing deterministic motion planning in the configuration space. To assert the approach efficiency, experimental and comparative results are proposed both on simulation and real-world scenarios using a SCARA robot model.