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Objective: To remotely trigger and perform a trajectory planning operation on a 5-axis robotic arm.

A trajectory is the path followed by the robotic tool. But the trajectory is not simply a path. It has to take into account the time profile as well. By that we mean, suppose the tool is to follow a circular path within a certain period of time. So, while planning the trajectory, that time constraint needs to be considered as well.

Now there are various ways in which a trajectory can be traversed. And this is purpose dependent. Such as in arc welding, the tool needs to follow a continuous path. Again, in a pick and place operation, there is no such continuous path following, rather the tool has to reach at certain distinct points.

So, accordingly, there needs to be a motion planning scheme for continuous path motion and point-point path motion.

These two basic schemes to trajectory planning are “joint space planning” and “Cartesian space planning”.

In general, joint-space planning is done for point-point motion and Cartesian space planning is done for continuous path motion.

                                                                                                            Source: http://www.fairweld.com

Fig: Arc-welding Robot System (continous path planning)

                                                        Source: http://www.ez-robot.com

Fig: Pick and place Robot(Point-to-point path planning)