A parallel learning particle swarm optimizer for inverse kinematics of robotic manipulator

In this study, a novel parallel learning particle swarm optimizer (PLPSO) is proposed. The evolutionary strategy of the algorithm is quite different from that of the existing PSO algorithms. To enhance the global search capability of the particle swarm, the original particle swarm is divided into two parallel evolving independent particle subpopulations to explore the search space simultaneously. In addition, according to the evolutionary factor in each iteration, the poorly performing particles in the two subpopulations are spurred and learned to improve the search speed of the particle swarm. In the process of particle learning, delay information is added to the velocity update item to reduce the occurrence of local capture. Twenty-eight benchmark functions of CEC2013 are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed PLPSO algorithm. Numerous comparisons demonstrate that the performance of the PLPSO algorithm is better than that of other nine PSO algorithms. Afterwards, the PLPSO algorithm is applied to the inverse kinematics (IK) solution of a robotic manipulator. By comparing with other three intelligent algorithms, the PLPSO algorithm shows an excellent performance in solving the IK problem. Finally, tests are carried out on an UR5 manipulator to confirm the practicability of the proposed PLPSO algorithm further. Thus, the feasibility of using the PLPSO algorithm for solving the IK problem of a robotic manipulator is verified.