matlab-plan-robot-motion

What it does

Plans collision-free paths for a robot manipulator and converts them into time-parameterized trajectories that respect velocity and acceleration limits. It covers generating trajectories between waypoints, time-optimal paths, constant-velocity profiles, and smooth options, with support for planning between configurations or Cartesian poses and for connecting IK solutions or user-provided waypoints.

How it works

The skill guides the agent through a step-by-step workflow:

• Assess whether a collision environment exists and model it using representations such as collisionBox, collisionCylinder, collisionMesh, occupancyMap3D, meshtsdf, or SphericalObstacles, choosing a planner (default is manipulatorRRT; CHOMP if seeking smoothness with mesh-based environments).
• Pre-conditions require loading a robot model via a dedicated kinematics skill and confirming collision meshes and row-format data.
• Step 2 selects a planner based on environment type, with default to manipulatorRRT and notes on when CHOMP is preferable for smoothness.
• Step 3 plans the path using manipulatorRRT (including skipping self-collisions via SkippedSelfCollisions) and then shortens the path with shorten. In occupancy-map scenarios, provide Map=omap and adjust parameters accordingly.
• Step 4 generates the trajectory using contopptraj (time-optimal), trapveltraj (constant velocity), or minjerkpolytraj (smooth unless obstacles govern otherwise). Arguments include velocity/acceleration limits, path transposition, and specific options like MaxIterations, ValidationDistance, and SmoothnessOptions.
• Step 5 verifies the resulting trajectory for collisions along samples using checkCollision, adjusting planning resolution if needed.
• Step 6 visualizes and animates the plan, showing the robot and environment.

Key functions involved include manipulatorRRT, manipulatorCHOMP, contopptraj, trapveltraj, minjerkpolytraj, checkCollision, and several collision primitives and mapping utilities.

When to use it

Use when moving a robot arm between joint configurations or Cartesian poses, generating any trajectory between waypoints, modeling obstacles for planning, choosing between motion planners (RRT, CHOMP, dlCHOMP), verifying a trajectory is collision-free, or connecting IK solutions or waypoints to form a trajectory. Triggers include terms like trajectory, motion, path, move from A to B, plan, as well as specific planner and path planning terms listed in the workflow.

What it can touch

The skill references a set of tools and functions that the agent may instantiate or call, including:

• manipulatorRRT, manipulatorCHOMP, contopptraj, trapveltraj, minjerkpolytraj, checkCollision, collisionBox, collisionCylinder, collisionSphere, collisionMesh, occupancyMap3D, meshtsdf, geom2struct, manipulatorStateSpace, plannerBiRRT.
• It also uses environment representations and collision objects as input (e.g., {} for empty collision objects with Map=omap).

Caveats

• Pre-conditions require invoking /matlab-model-robot-kinematics first; do not proceed until the robot model exists in MATLAB workspace.
• The environment must include collision meshes for reliable collision checking; otherwise, planning results may be invalid.
• DataFormat must be 'row' for configuration vectors.
• Self-collision handling relies on SkippedSelfCollisions at construction time; altering it post-construction can cause type issues.
• The workflow emphasizes verifying the entire trajectory post-generation, since interpolation can introduce collisions not seen in waypoint checks.
• The license is provided by MathWorks and is NOASSERTION.