A method for industrial manipulators for approximating paths with an excessive number of fly-by points

Abstract

Computer vision systems are often used to automatically generate paths for the working tool of an industrial manipulator. However, such paths often contain an excessive number of points and small random noises and cannot be directly used to set the movements of the manipulator. The article proposes a method for approximating such paths by a sequence of straight lines and circles to reduce the number of commands to the manipulator and to mitigate noise. The method is based on search through possible variants for dividing the path into segments and comparing the total errors when fitting a straight line or circle into each of the segments. The article provides three ways to search through combinations: a complete search, the fastest search and an intermediate variant that provides the user with a choice between the speed of the search and the probability of finding the optimal combination. In addition, equations are given for calculating the parameters of straight lines and circles, as well as for estimating the approximation error; a method for calculating the endpoints of straight line segments and circular arcs is shown. The efficiency of the method was tested on the path obtained from a profile laser scanner.