Path Planning Algorithm Based on the Improved RRT-Connect for Home Service Robot Arms

Path planning is one of the important research fields of service robots. However, each path plan algorithm has its advantages and disadvantage. Path planning for home service robot arms in ROS usually uses bidirectional fast extended random tree(RRT-Connect) algorithm. However, due to the operation principle of the algorithm, there are many redundant path points and the smoothness and security of the path are poor. The idea of the improved algorithm is to delete redundant nodes to simplify the path, the path transition area uses parabolic transition to smooth the path, the obstacles are surrounded by a ball model and the safe distance is calculated to improve the safety of the robot's working process. The simulation results show that the improved algorithm plans a simpler, smoother and safer path for the home service robot arms.