Automated optimization of complex three-dimensional robot trajectories

Planning of 3D-trajectories for robots can be very time consuming, especially if a defined movement of the work-piece relative to a process-tool is required. Commonly the dynamic attributes of the robot are not considered during the planning. Adjacent process planes, which share the same edges but have different angles of their surface normals, require an abrupt change of the work-piece orientation. This results in irregularities of the robots movement. Addressing this problem, a method for an automated optimization of 3D-trajectories is developed at FAPS. Thereby in critical areas of the process pathway a defined pre- or post-rotation of the work-piece relative to the tool is achieved. Further algorithms enable an automated control of the process equipment, generation of non-process relevant trajectory segments and modification of the velocity parameters. Thereby the approach is independent from a specific manipulators kinematic. The effectiveness of the method has been as well validated by experiments.