Hierarchical Motion Planning Framework for Manipulators in Human-Centered Dynamic Environments

Collaborating robots face rising challenges with respect to autonomy and safety as they are deployed in flexible automation applications. The ability to perform the required tasks in the presence of humans and obstacles is key for the integration of these machines in industry. In this work we introduce a framework for motion planning of manipulators that builds upon the most promising existing approaches by combining them in an advantageous way. It includes a new Obstacle-related Sampling Rejection Probabilistic Roadmap planner (ORSR-PRM) that represents the free workspace in an efficient way. Using this representation, dynamic obstacles can be avoided in real-time using an attractor-based online trajectory generation. The resulting motions satisfy kinematic and dynamic joint limits, ensuring a safe human-robot interaction. We validate the functionality and performance of the presented framework in simulations and experiments.