About Path Planning

The path planning capabilities enable the automatic computing of collision-free assembly motions along an assembly path, with key factors and parameters subject to your guide adjustment and control. You can use these capabilities on any Track in a PPR context or in a Model Scenario Results (MSR) context. They consist of these features:

  • Automatic collision-free path planning:
    • Path computation settings
    • Path specifications of start, intermediate, and end points
  • Automatic path-finding optimization
  • Extraction from collision position, including current start, end, and intermediate points
  • Restricting computation area with:
    • Adjustable bounding box definition in 3D
    • Adjustable rotation angle definitions and motion limits.

This page discusses:

Path Planning Basics

The Path Planning command gives you access to context toolbar and parameters with which you can monitor and adjust the track-finding operations. The main capabilities are summarized below.

Path Planning Command
You can select a Track before or after clicking Path Planning in the Simulation section of the action bar. The path planning capabilities are inactive until Track selection. The command opens the Path Planning context toolbar, which you use for managing the path planning solver. The path planning solver performs the computations that trace a collision-free Track.
On the Path Planning context toolbar, you can:
  • Activate the path-planning solver with Find Track .
  • Smooth and refine a collision-free path with Optimize Track .
  • Define the area of the track-finding computation with Display Bounding Box .
  • Assist the path planning solver to determine a path with Manual Assistance in Determining Path .
Path Planning also opens a tabbed panel on which you can manage track-finding parameters. See Path Finder Panel.
Points in Path Planning
Track points, also referred to as T-points, are essential to the path finding operation. You can assign and manage start, end, intermediate, and guiding point types with the Track Points context toolbar.
  • You assign T-points to create a Track. When the Path Planning command is active, T-points are automatically created by the solver as computed points that define a Track. Typed points are stored on T-points.
  • Start and end points are point types that specifically define the first and last points to be taken into account by the Find Track and Optimize Track commands.
  • Intermediate points are point types that specifically define a mandatory point to be kept by the Find Track command.
  • Guiding points are point types that specifically define a point that can help the Find Track command quickly find a solution.

About Guiding Points in Path Planning

You can create guiding points as required to assist the path planning solver in more quickly finding a collision-free path. A guiding point can be created before starting the Find Track command, or during the solver computation.

Guiding Points and Target Points

When the path planning solver is active, it manages guiding, intermediate, and end points as target points, ordered in sequence following the Track order. The solver identifies only one at a time in that sequence as the active target point.

As the solver finds points near the active target point, that target is considered achieved and the next target point becomes the active target for the solver. The previous target point is no longer part of the computation.

When you define a guiding point before starting the track-finding computation, the solver processes it in Track order among the other target points. When you add a guiding point during computation, it immediately becomes the new active target point and is inserted before the existing target.

The purpose of adding a guiding point during computation is to help the solver find a solution. For optimal solver progress, be attentive to the solver activity and the position in which the new guiding point is created. If domain or rotation limits are specified, the point position and orientation should comply with them.

Note: You can only add guiding points during computation, not intermediate points.

Guiding Points and Transient Guiding Points

When the computation is paused, you can create new points for the solver, called transient guiding points, that do not belong to the Track. A transient guiding point appears as a cross with a guiding point label. You can also change an existing T-Point to a guiding point.

First, click Manage Guiding Point in the Find Track toolbar, then:

  • To add a new guiding point, move the Robot from a selected point and, when at the required position and orientation, click Set Guiding Type. A transient guiding point is added at that position. The Remove Type command can be used to delete the transient guiding point.
  • To change an existing T-point to a guiding point, select the T-Point and click Set Guiding Type. The Robot moves to the selected point, and the moving objects are displayed at that position. You can use the Remove Type command to remove the type specified on the point.