A Reverse Path Planning Approach for Enhanced Performance of Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Industrial Manipulators

In the domain of autonomous industrial manipulators,precise positioning and appropriate posture selection in path planning are pivotal for tasks involving obstacle avoidance,such as handling,heat sealing,and stacking.While Multi-Degree-of-Freedom(MDOF)manipulators offer kinematic redundancy,aiding in the derivation of optimal inverse kinematic solutions to meet position and posture requisites,their path planning entails intricate multiobjective optimization,encompassing path,posture,and joint motion optimization.Achieving satisfactory results in practical scenarios remains challenging.In response,this study introduces a novel Reverse Path Planning(RPP)methodology tailored for industrial manipulators.The approach commences by conceptualizing the manipulator’s end-effector as an agent within a reinforcement learning(RL)framework,wherein the state space,action set,and reward function are precisely defined to expedite the search for an initial collision-free path.To enhance convergence speed,the Q-learning algorithm in RL is augmented with Dyna-Q.Additionally,we formulate the cylindrical bounding box of the manipulator based on its Denavit-Hartenberg(DH)parameters and propose a swift collision detection technique.Furthermore,the motion performance of the end-effector is refined through a bidirectional search,and joint weighting coefficients are introduced to mitigate motion in high-power joints.The efficacy of the proposed RPP methodology is rigorously examined through extensive simulations conducted on a six-degree-of-freedom(6-DOF)manipulator encountering two distinct obstacle configurations and target positions.Experimental results substantiate that the RPP method adeptly orchestrates the computation of the shortest collision-free path while adhering to specific posture constraints at the target point.Moreover,itminimizes both posture angle deviations and joint motion,showcasing its prowess in enhancing the operational performance of MDOF industrial manipulators.

Feature Selection by Merging Sequential Bidirectional Search into Relevance Vector Machine in Condition Monitoring

For more accurate fault detection and diagnosis, there is an increasing trend to use a large number of sensors and to collect data at high frequency. This inevitably produces large-scale data and causes difficulties in fault classification. Actually, the classification methods are simply intractable when applied to high-dimensional condition monitoring data. In order to solve the problem, engineers have to resort to complicated feature extraction methods to reduce the dimensionality of data. However, the features transformed by the methods cannot be understood by the engineers due to a loss of the original engineering meaning. In this paper, other forms of dimensionality reduction technique（feature selection methods） are employed to identify machinery condition, based only on frequency spectrum data. Feature selection methods are usually divided into three main types： filter, wrapper and embedded methods. Most studies are mainly focused on the first two types, whilst the development and application of the embedded feature selection methods are very limited. This paper attempts to explore a novel embedded method. The method is formed by merging a sequential bidirectional search algorithm into scale parameters tuning within a kernel function in the relevance vector machine. To demonstrate the potential for applying the method to machinery fault diagnosis, the method is implemented to rolling bearing experimental data. The results obtained by using the method are consistent with the theoretical interpretation, proving that this algorithm has important engineering significance in revealing the correlation between the faults and relevant frequency features. The proposed method is a theoretical extension of relevance vector machine, and provides an effective solution to detect the fault-related frequency components with high efficiency.

Three Dimensional Laser Point Cloud Slicing Method for Calculating Irregular Volume

Volume parameter is the basic content of a spatial body object morphology analysis.However,the challenge lies in the volume calculation of irregular objects.The point cloud slicing method proposed in this study effectively works in calculating the volume of the point cloud of the spatial object obtained through three-dimensional laser scanning(3DLS).In this method,a uniformly spaced sequent slicing process is first conducted in a specific direction on the point cloud of the spatial object obtained through 3DLS.A series of discrete point cloud slices corresponding to the point cloud bodies are then obtained.Subsequently,the outline boundary polygon of the point cloud slicing is searched one by one in accordance with the slicing sequence and areas of the polygon.The point cloud slice is also calculated.Finally,the individual point cloud section volume is calculated through the slicing areas and the adjacent slicing gap.Thus,the total volume of the scanned spatial object can be calculated by summing up the individual volumes.According to the results and analysis of the calculated examples,the slice-based volume-calculating method for the point cloud of irregular objects obtained through 3DLS is correct,concise in process,reliable in results,efficient in calculation methods,and controllable on accuracy.This method comes as a good solution to the volume calculation of irregular objects.