Acceleration of the Development for Motion Planning Algorithms Using V-REP

Motion planning for automation equipment has been used in many areas, including assembly lines in the automated factory, indoor cleaning, and automatic driving. Motion planning algorithms can be developed and validated via V-REP (Virtual Robot Experimentation Platform), a freely available and powerful simulation experiment platform, before being applied to actual devices. This paper describes the implementation details about the applications of V-REP functionalities to accelerate the development of motion planning algorithms, ranging from control mechanisms to environment modeling to calculation modules. In addition, a framework based on the remote API client control mode for motion planning is presented to suit for different algorithms. Finally, two scenarios are constructed to demonstrate the convenience and flexibility of the platform. All of our work provide a documented guideline for users who attempt to take advantage of the platform for developing motion planning algorithms.