Collision-free paths improve robot tasks near humans
Trajectory-Safe Orienteering for Human-Robot Shared Environments
Robotics
Summary
When robots work near people, it's important that they don't bump into them while doing tasks. The authors study a problem where a robot needs to visit places at specific times, with different rewards for each place. They introduce a new method that plans safe, collision-free paths and chooses tasks to do well within shared spaces. Early tests show their approach works well to keep robots safe while completing their missions.
What this means in practice
- •For industrial automation teams: Plan robot arm movements safely around workers while prioritizing valuable tasks within time constraints.
- •For warehouse robotics engineers: Generate collision-free paths that optimize task order and timing to improve robot efficiency in shared human-robot environments.
Authors
Songqun Gao, Elena Basei, Marco Roveri, Luigi Palopoli, Daniele Fontanelli
Abstract
Orienteering problem (OP) has wide real-world applications and also great potential in human-robot collaboration. However, existing approaches struggle to simultaneously ensure safe and feasible trajectories while achieving high-quality task execution in shared workspaces. To this end, this work studies the OP with time windows and variable profits (OPTWVP). A two-stage DEcoupled discrete-Continuous Optimization with Service-time-guided Trajectory (DeCoST) approach is proposed to effectively solve OPTWVP in shared spaces. Meanwhile, the safety-aware time windows of nodes and the discretized workspace are introduced to ensure collision-free trajectories between the end effector and the human. Preliminary results validate the effectiveness of DeCoST in generating collision-free trajectory plans while preserving the quality of orienteering tasks.