Simulation research on motion planning of laser cladding robot based on ROS

The 6-axes articulated laser cladding robot has a very high degree of freedom. It can produce more complex parts with sculptured surface directly and get higher product quality. Because of the multi-link structure, multi-degree of freedom and complicated working environment, the motion planning of the robot becomes more complex. According to the kin-ematics and knowledge of collision free path planning, a method of path planning and path generation about laser clad-ding robot in joint space and Cartesian space is discussed based on ROS platform. The model of KUKA KR60 type ro-bot with six degrees of freedom and its working environment are established in SolidWorks at first. Then simplified ro-bot model is exported as URDF file by Solidworks using the SW2URDF plugin, and environment model is derived into DAE format file using 3DS MAX. Finally, in ROS platform, SRDF, configuration and launch files which robot motion planning needs are generated by MoveIt!'s Setup Assistant tool. In the RViz environment, when scene objects file is imported, a collision free path for robot based on motion planning algorithm in OMPL, a sampling planning algorithm library, is generated by Motion Planning plugin, and robot's movement trail is displayed in the visualization window. For the motion planning problem of robot in complex environment, robot's virtual control is realized based on its 3D model in ROS platform, and robot's joint position, joint speed and other data during movement process are exported through ROS's tools. These data can provide a reference for teaching programming of laser cladding of the robot, and also a more intuitive approach for further analysis then to improve planning algorithm.