Plan it Safe: A Risk-Driven Motion Planning Framework for Collaborative Robots

Elena Stracca, Alessandro Palleschi, Lucia Pallottino and Paolo Salaris
Proceedings of IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)

Abstract

This paper presents a novel trajectory planning method for collaborative robots, focusing on a risk-centric approach to enhance safety and performance. Drawing from risk management principles, encompassing factors such as operator safety, performance degradation, and internal robotrelated issues, the proposed framework offers a comprehensive
solution for offline trajectory planning and online reactive trajectory execution. The main contributions include developing and implementing a risk definition and assessment framework utilizing fuzzy inference systems, a mapping strategy leveraging fuzzy logic to correlate robot states with risk levels, and formulating a global measure for evaluating the overall risk. Additionally, the paper introduces a risk-driven motion planning algorithm aimed at minimizing trajectory risk. It also proposes a reactive trajectory adaptation method to respond dynamically to elevated risk levels during task execution. Validation through simulations and experiments with a 7 Degree of Freedom (DoF) robotic manipulator demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach in generating risk-limited trajectories and adapting online to collision risk factors.

@INPROCEEDINGS{10711449,
  author={Stracca, Elena and Palleschi, Alessandro and Pallottino, Lucia and Salaris, Paolo},
  booktitle={2024 IEEE 20th International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)}, 
  title={Plan it Safe: A Risk-Driven Motion Planning Framework for Collaborative Robots}, 
  year={2024},
  volume={},
  number={},
  pages={2885-2892},
  keywords={Fuzzy logic;Measurement;Trajectory planning;Collaborative robots;Trajectory;Planning;Safety;Risk management;Monitoring;Manipulator dynamics},
  doi={10.1109/CASE59546.2024.10711449}}