Path Planning Strategy for a Manipulator Based on a Heuristically Constructed Network

Collision-free path planning of manipulators is becoming indispensable for space exploration and on-orbit operation. Manipulators in these scenarios are restrained in terms of computing resources and storage, so the path planning method used in such tasks is usually limited in its operating time and the amount of data transmission. In this paper, a heuristically constructed network (HCN) construction strategy is proposed. The HCN construction contains three steps: determining the number of hub configurations and selecting and connecting hub configurations. Considering the connection time and connectivity of HCN, the number of hub configurations is determined first. The selection of hub configurations includes the division of work space and the optimization of the hub configurations. The work space can be divided by considering comprehensively the similarity among the various configurations within the same region, the dissimilarity among all regions, and the correlation among adjacent regions. The hub configurations can be selected by establishing and solving the optimization model. Finally, these hub configurations are connected to obtain the HCN. The simulation indicates that the path points number and the planning time is decreased by 45.5% and 48.4%, respectively, which verify the correctness and effectiveness of the proposed path planning strategy based on the HCN.