Path Planning of the Robotic Manipulator Based on an Improved Bi-RRT

The robotic manipulator has become an indispensable piece of manufacturing equipment. The key to guiding its movement is path planning technology, which is becoming increasingly important due to the complex working environments, in which the robotic manipulator is used. This article proposes the improved bidirectional rapid exploration random trees (IBi-RRT) algorithm and applies it to the path planning of a six-degree-of-freedom (6-DOF) robotic manipulator. The proposed algorithm has two improved strategies. First, the idea of preferential selection of random node is adopted to reduce randomness in the expansion. Second, the adjustable attractive force size strategy is used to increase search speed. In order to make the planned path more in line with the actual motion path of the 6-DOF robotic manipulator, a quadratic B-spline function is used to smooth the initial path. Simulations and experiments are performed to verify the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed algorithm. Simulation results and experiments demonstrate that the IBi-RRT algorithm can safely move the 6-DOF robotic manipulator to the designated position.