Two steps optimization path planning algorithm for robot manipulators using imperialist competitive algorithm

This paper proposes a new path planning algorithm for serial manipulators with a large number of degrees of freedom, based on imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA). Having a path equation in three dimentional space, the method formulates the path planning problem as an optimization algorithm and solves it using the ICA in two steps of optimization. At the first step, the algorithm looks for successive point set as candidate path for a given manipulator's path equation, and at second step it would find the best path by minimizing the error of end-effector movement, through each path. This error is calculated using another ICA optimization to solve the point to point inverse kinematics of any path with minimum joint displacement. Therefore, the manipulator's end-effector would be smoothly moved from an initial location to its target. The proposed method could be applied for any kind of manipulator configuration, independent of the number of joints. Simulation and studies show that the proposed method leads to a high accuracy and efficiency to solve the path planning problem of serial manipulators with arbitrary degree of redundancy.