Optimal automatic path planner and design for high redundancy robotic systems

Purpose: In the vast majority of the individual robot installations, the robot arm is just one piece of a complex puzzle of components, such as grippers, jigs or external axis, that together compose an industrial robotic cell. The success of such installations is very dependent not only on the selection of such components but also on the layout and design of the final robotic cell, which are the main tasks of the system integrators. Consequently, successful robot installations are often empirical tasks owing to the high number of experimental combinations that could lead to exhaustive and time-consuming testing approaches. Design/methodology/approach: A newly developed optimized technique to deal with automatic planning and design of robotic systems is proposed and tested in this paper. Findings: The application of a genetic-based algorithm achieved optimal results in short time frames and improved the design of robotic work cells. Here, the authors show that a multi-layer optimization approach, which can be validated using a robotic tool, is able to help with the design of robotic systems. Practical implications: The usage of the proposed approach can be valuable to industrial corporations, as it allows for improved workflows, maximization of available robotic operations and improvement of efficiency. Originality/value: To date, robotic solutions lack flexibility to cope with the demanding industrial environments. The results presented here formalize a new flexible and modular approach, which can provide optimal solutions throughout the different stages of design and execution control of any work cell.