Interactive Path Editing and Simulation System for Motion Planning and Control of a Collaborative Robot

Abstract

Robots in hazardous environments demand precise and advanced motion control, making extensive simulations crucial for verifying the safety of motion planning. This paper presents a simulation system that enables interactive path editing, allowing for motion planning in a simulated collaborative robot environment and its real-world application. The system includes a simulation host, a control board, and a robot. Unity 3D on a Windows platform provides the simulation environment, while a virtual Linux environment runs ROS2 for execution. Unity sends edited motion paths to ROS2 using the Unity ROS TCP Connector package. The ROS2 MoveIt framework generates trajectories, which are synchronized back to Unity for simulation and real-world validation. To control the six-axis Indy7 collaborative robot, we used the MIO5272 embedded board as an EtherCAT master. Verified trajectories are sent to the target board, synchronizing the robot with the simulation in position and speed. Data are relayed from the host to the MIO5272 using ROS2 and the Data Distribution Service (DDS) to control the robot via EtherCAT communication. The system enables direct simulation and control of various trajectories for robots in hazardous environments. It represents a major advancement by providing safe and optimized trajectories through efficient motion planning and repeated simulations, offering a clear improvement over traditional time-consuming and error-prone teach pendant methods.