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Trajectory Planning

Originally prepared by: Prof Engr Dr Ishkandar Baharin

Head of Campus & Dean
UniKL MFI
 Path and Trajectory Planning

Path and trajectory planning is the way that a robot is moved from one
location to another in a controlled manner.
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It requires the use of both kinematics and dynamics of robots.

• Path : A sequence of robot configurations in a particular order

without regard to the timing of these configurations.

• Trajectory: It concerned about when each part of the path must

be attained in a certain constraint, thus specifying timing.

Here the robot

configuration is more
important than the speed.

Sequential robot movements in a path

 JOINT-SPACE VS. CARTESIAN-SPACE DESCRIPTIONS
• Joint-space description:
- The description of the motion to be made by the robot by its joint values.
- The motion between the two points is unpredictable.
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• Cartesian space description:

- The motion between the two points is known at all times and controllable.
- It is easy to visualize the trajectory, but is difficult to ensure that
singularity.

Sequential motions of a robot to follow a straight line

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Problem: A robot must not harm itself !!!

Cartesian-space trajectory (a) The trajectory specified in Cartesian

coordinates may force the robot to run into itself, and (b) the trajectory may
requires a sudden change in the joint angles.
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Joint-space non-normalized movements of a robot with two degrees of freedom.

• Move the robot from A to B, to run both joints

at their maximum angular velocities.
• After 2 [sec], the lower link will have finished its
motion, while the upper link continues for another
3 [sec].
• The path is irregular and the distances traveled
by the robot’s end are not uniform.
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Joint-space, normalized movements of a robot with two degrees of freedom.

• Both joints move at different speeds, but move

continuously together.
• The resulting trajectory will be different.
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Cartesian-space movements of a two-degree-of-freedom robot.

• Divide the line into five segments and solve for

necessary angles α and β at each point.
• The joint angles are not uniformly changing.
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Trajectory planning with an acceleration-deceleration regiment.

• It is assumed that the robot’s actuators are strong enough to provide large
forces necessary to accelerate and decelerate the joints as needed.
•Divide the segments differently.
•The arm move at smaller segments as we speed up at the beginning.
•Go at a constant cruising rate
•Decelerate with smaller segments as approaching point B.
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Trajectory Planning

It is a planning of how to move an object from its initial location to the final
location in the work space with a consideration of time, i.e. it describes the
positions, orientations, linear velocities, angular velocities and accelerations of
the joint movements.

There are generally two types of trajectory planning:

•Polynomial trajectories - workspace without obstacles

•Polynomial trajectories via points - workspace with obstacles

Polynomials Trajectories
If there is no obstacle in the work-space, the trajectory for a robot manipulator can
be easily planned using the specified initial position, initial velocity, final position
and final velocity in the joint space. We may use inverse kinematics and motion
kinematics to find the corresponding information of all joints in the joint space.
Generally, we can use third-order (cubic) polynomial function as the position
trajectory.
 Trajectory Path Planning using Polynomial Equations (Note: This is in joint
space).

Consider a single-link robot manipulator with rotary joint. Design a trajectory

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with the following two cubic segments: The first segment connects the initial
angular position θ(0) = 100 to the via point θ(1) = 50, and the second segment
connects the via point θ(1) = 50 to the final angular position θ(2) = 500. The
designed trajectory should have zero initial velocity and zero final velocity. Also,
at the via point θ(1) = 50, the trajectory should have continuous velocity and
acceleration.
First, we use the following two cubic polynomials as the candidates of the two
trajectory segments:

θ(1) (t ) = a0(1) + a1(1)t + a2(1)t 2 + a3(1)t 3 for 0 ≤ t ≤1

θ(2) (t ) = a0(2) + a1(2) (t − 1) + a2(2) (t − 1)2 + a3(2) (t − 1)3 for 1≤ t ≤ 2

 θ&(1) (t ) = a1(1) + 2a2(1)t + 3a2(1)t 2 for 0 ≤ t ≤1

θ&&(1) (t ) = 2a2(1) + 6a3(1)t 0 ≤ t ≤1

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for

θ&(2) (t ) = a1(2) + 2a2(2) (t − 1) + 3a3(2) (t − 1) 2 for 1≤ t ≤ 2

θ&&(2) (t ) = 2a2(2) + 6a3(2) (t − 1) for 1≤ t ≤ 2

The constraints of the trajectory, from the question, are listed as follow:

θ (1) (0) = 100 ,θ&(1) (0) = 0,θ (1) (1) = 50 ,

θ (2) (0) = 50 ,θ&(1) (1) = θ&(2) (1),θ&&(1) (1) = θ&&(2) (1)
θ (2) (2) = 500 , θ&&(2) (2) = 0
 Using the constraints in the two cubic polynomials and their derivatives,
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we obtain the following equations:

a 0(1 ) = 1 0
a 1(1 ) = 0
a 0(1 ) + a 1(1 ) + a 2(1 ) + a 3(1 ) = 5
a 0( 2 ) = 5
a 1( 2 ) = a 1(1 ) + 2 a 2(1 ) + 3 a 3(1 )
2 a 2( 2 ) = 2 a 2(1 ) + 6 a 3(1 )
a 0( 2 ) + a 1( 2 ) + a 2( 2 ) + a 3( 2 ) = 5 0
a 1( 2 ) + 2 a 2( 2 ) + 3 a 3( 2 ) = 0
 Solving the above 8 equations, we obtain the polynomial parameters as
follow:

a0(1) = 10
a1(1) = 0
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a2(1) = −45
a3(1) = 40
a0(2) = 5
a1(2) = 30
a2(2) = 75
a3(2) = −60
Therefore, the detailed expressions of the two cubic segments are:

θ(1) (t ) = 10 − 45t 2 + 40t 3 0 ≤ t ≤1

θ(2) (t ) = 5 + 30(t − 1) + 75(t − 1)2 − 60(t − 1)3 1≤ t ≤ 2
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And the velocity profiles and the acceleration profiles of the two trajectory
segments are also given below:

θ&(1) (t ) = −90t + 120t 2 for 0 ≤ t ≤1

θ&&(1) (t ) = −90 + 240t for 0 ≤ t ≤1

θ&(2) (t ) = 30 + 150(t − 1) − 180(t − 1)2 for 1≤ t ≤ 2

θ&&(2) (t ) = 150 − 360(t − 1) for 1≤ t ≤ 2
 Homework
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• Study the chapter on Trajectory Planning,

chapter 7.
• Try to understand and follow the
examples given, Ex 7.2-1, 7.3-1, 7.3-2.
• Try out the exercises by yourself.
• Read and understand the reference
slides given.