Open

Roadmap Mode

After you have modeled your work cell in Model Mode, you will create a set of pre-planned robotic motions, specifically the robot’s configurations and the paths connecting them, in Roadmap Mode. The robotic motions are checked for possible collisions during runtime.

Roadmap Toolbar

Open

Toolbar - Roadmap Mode

Target

Used to add a target, which is a node in a roadmap with a position and orientation that a robot end-effector should be able to reach.

Note:

• A target is a fixed point in space, not a robot joint configuration.

• Targets should stay away from the axis limits of the robot by a minimum 2 degrees.

Assign

Displays the Target Assignment dialog, where you can identify which robot and which preset to assign the target to, and then choose among the Inverse Kinematic solutions to use to reach that target.

The first IK solution from the IK solution list is always the assigned solution. To select a certain IK solution as the assigned IK solution for a given target, first use the slider to select the IK solution to be assigned. Then press OK button to finalize the selection. The assigned IK solution is now becoming the first IK solution from the IK solution list.

The assigned IK solution for the first target from the target assignment list, is also the seeded IK solution for the target assignments after the first assigned target.

Connect

You can choose to make connections manually, with the Connections Editor, or have RapidPlan Create make them automatically, with Auto-Connect.

Connections Editor

The Connections Editor displays the Edit Connections dialog, where you can manually configure connections between targets. You can specify whether connections should be Joint or Cartesian for each target.

After the connections have been created, Joint connections display as green lines. Cartesian connections display as blue lines.

Joint Connections and Cartesian Connections

When a robot moves between points in space it uses one of two kinds of interpolation: Joint or Cartesian. In the picture below, the green areas represent the joint space and the TCP represents the cartesian space.

Joint connection motion is calculated by linearly interpolating in the robot's joint space between the endpoint joint configurations (j1,j2,j3,j4,j5,j6). Joint space is the “natural” space of the robot: motions created in this space are the optimal to reach the goal.

Cartesian motion is calculated by interpolating in 3D space between the two endpoint frames at a discrete set of intermediate poses (x,y,z,r,p,y of the TCP). Motions in this space are more intuitive to the user, since the TCP will follow a straight line between points, but it has some restrictions like singularities and acceleration/jerk limits when performing certain movements.

No connect radio button – Disconnects all the connections within the current group.

Intra-group tab - For connections within the current group of targets.

Inter-group tab - For connections between groups of targets. Targets within the group are not connected to each other.

Edge tab - Used to select individual connections, instead of targets. Selections are made in the 3D View.

Clear button - Clears the selected items.

Connection Density Sparse/Dense slider - Determines how many connections are to be created between and among targets based upon their distance from each other. Sparse means only the targets closest together are connected to each other. The most dense setting means all targets are connected to all other targets.

Apply button - Must be clicked for any operation to take effect, i.e., the creation of a roadmap, without closing the dialog.

OK button - After the Apply button is pressed to create a roadmap, click the OK button to confirm and close the dialog.

Auto-Connect

Auto-connect is a feature that automatically generates collision-free paths around obstacles without the need to set up a lot of specific targets.

The Auto-Connect dialog displays the robot presets for the currently active robot, in the above example, the three tabs: Preset1, Preset2_Torch.

Name - Automatically generated name for the Auto-Connect. It can be customized.

Joint Limits - Used to set the joint configuration limits when Auto-Connect is generating the roadmap. Initially displays the default robot joint limits. While joint limits are usually hardware-specific, a user might want to specify them manually to avoid certain positions (for example if cables are blocking some rotations of the base). Auto-Connect will take those new joint limits into account when planning.

TCP/Workspace Limits - Since most planners are using randomized sampling, the TCP can move arbitrarily through space along a path. A user can avoid this behavior by restricting the TCP to an imaginary box in 3D. Select and drag the sliders to interact with the box. A user can also clip the box either to the current TCP position or to the selected targets (plus padding).

Object States - Displays the object mates and their potential states. It’s used by Auto-Connect to create a path selectively, based on the states. The options are Active, Suppressed, or All.

If “All states” is selected for a mate, Auto-connect will try to find a motion path that would avoid obstacles in all object states for the mate.

Advanced Settings

• Total optimization time - Determines how long to allow for the roadmap to be generated.

• Required clearance - Determines how close the roadmap can get to an object.

• Fast or Optimal mode or Combined mode - Optimization logarithms used to generate the roadmap.

Fast mode - Auto-Connect will return the first feasible solution it finds. Fast mode will fail if no solution has been found in the total optimization time.

Optimal mode - Auto-Connect tries to optimize the solution as best it can in the total optimization time given. Optimal mode will fail if no solution has been found in the total optimization time.

Combined mode - Auto-Connect uses fast mode to quickly find a connection. If it doesn't find a connection it reports failure early. If Auto-Connect finds a connection it will optimize until a given time budget is passed and stop early if it cannot optimize further.

Cost terms importance:

Used to weigh parameters against each other when auto-generating the roadmap. The sliders are used to set the parameters for the number of waypoints to be used; and the relative lengths of paths.

Apply - Create the specified connections.

OK - Close the dialog with the settings saved.

Measure Tool

You can measure the distance between any two items in the 3D View by clicking on them. The Measure dialog box can display minimum (straight-line) distance and dimension-wise (Dx, DY, and DZ) distance between the two items. The Measure tool displays other measurement information such as distance between parallel surfaces, relative plane angles, and total area. 

Inspect

Inspector tool with robot swept volume(voxels) collision shown in darker grey:

Inspector tool with robot in collision path shown in red:

For QA and debugging purposes it is necessary to have some way to validate generated edges. You should be able to see if a robot collides with obstacles while moving through a given edge.

The Inspector tool will:

• Visualize robots in collision

• Visualize robot voxelization

• Visualize connections

• Play and pause robots motion with adjustable speeds along edges.

Inspector tool dialog

Robot - Path - Speed selection list: Selection of robots to be visualized; Motion path to be visualized based on edges or targets selected; Playback control of each robot.

View - Validity State: Connections based on Invalid, In Progress/Unknown, or Valid states.

View - Connection Type: Cartesian or Joint.

Settings - Auto-play motions: Check to start playing motions immediately after edges or targets are selected for each robot.

Settings - Show voxels: Check to show voxelization of the robots.

Settings - Speed Factor: Adjust playback speed of all robots.

Settings - Pause All/Play All: Visualize robots motion started.

Settings - Reset All: Teleport all robots to the targets before all motion started.

Legend - Invalid: Red connections.

Legend - In progress/Unknown: Yellow connections.

Legend - Valid: Green connections.

Inspector tool sequence of operation

1. A robot or robots are selected from the property tree or from canvas.

2. For each robot, select edges or targets in the path selection input window.

3. Select display of edges based on validity state or connection type.

4. Set auto-play motions.

5. Show/hide voxels.

6. Select robots to play, press “Play all” button to start.

Validate

Validate checks the roadmap’s targets, configurations, and connections are valid, in preparation for exporting the project file. It is a two-step process.

1. Validating the motion of the robot with a particular TCP to determine if there are any collisions, and whether it is a valid path.

2. For valid paths, it turns robot swept volumes into voxels.

Validate remaining - Validates edges that have not yet been validated, that is, since the last time the Validation button was pressed.

Revalidate All - Validates all edges.

Export

The Export button generates the different CAD files needed for the current project. The project is compressed to a .zip file and saved under the same project folder.