Geometrically constrained path planning for robotic grasping with Differential Evolution and Fast Marching Square

This paper presents a new approach for geometrically constrained path planning applied to the field of robotic grasping. The method proposed in this paper is based on the Fast Marching Square (FM2) and a path calculation approach based on an optimization evolutionary filter named Differential Evolution (DE). The geometric restrictions caused by the link lengths of the kinematic chain composed by the robot arm and hand are introduced in the path calculation phase. This phase uses both the funnel potential of the surroundings created with FM2 and the kinematic constraints of the robot as cost functions to be minimized by the evolutionary filter. The use of an optimization filter allows for a near-optimal solution that satisfies the kinematic restrictions, while preserving the characteristics of a path computed with FM2. The proposed method is tested in a simulation using a robot composed by a mobile base with two arms.