This work investigates on the coordinated locomotion between a ceiling-mounted serial manipulator and two SwarmItFIX robots. The former holds the machining tool as an end effector, and the other two robots act as swarm robotic fixtures in a sheet metal milling process. A novel offline coordination planner which follows the hierarchical based hybrid type decentralized planning strategy has been proposed. Motion of the serial manipulator and SwarmItFIX robots’ coordinated locomotion are divided into three sub-problems, viz, trajectory planning of serial manipulator, task planning of SwarmItFIX robots, and homogenous prioritized multi-robot path planning of SwarmItFIX robots. Mathematical formulation of all the three sub-problems is developed and presented in this paper. A hexagonal segment that fits inside the boundaries of the workspace is considered as the machining trajectory. The tool velocity is assumed to be constant as it improves the quality of machining. The results obtained from the proposed planner is found to be efficient as the task planning module has computed the precise support locations and support duration for the SwarmItFIX robots. The multi-robot path planning module of the planner computes the optimal collision-free paths of SwarmItFIX robots for all goal positions. Finally, trajectories of SwarmItFIX robots are found to be completely in-line with the trajectory of tool center point (TCP) of the serial manipulator.

这项工作研究了天花板安装的串行机械手和两个 SwarmItFIX 机器人之间的协调运动。前者将加工工具作为末端执行器，另外两个机器人在钣金铣削过程中充当集群机器人夹具。提出了一种新的离线协调规划器，它遵循基于分层的混合型分散规划策略。串行机械手的运动和SwarmItFIX机器人的协调运动分为三个子问题，即串行机械手的轨迹规划、SwarmItFIX机器人的任务规划和SwarmItFIX机器人的同质优先多机器人路径规划。本文开发并介绍了所有三个子问题的数学公式。适合工作空间边界的六边形线段被视为加工轨迹。刀具速度被假定为常数，因为它提高了加工质量。由于任务规划模块计算了 SwarmItFIX 机器人的精确支持位置和支持持续时间，因此发现从提议的规划器获得的结果是有效的。规划器的多机器人路径规划模块为所有目标位置计算 SwarmItFIX 机器人的最佳无碰撞路径。最后，发现 SwarmItFIX 机器人的轨迹与串行机械手的工具中心点 (TCP) 的轨迹完全一致。由于任务规划模块计算了 SwarmItFIX 机器人的精确支持位置和支持持续时间，因此发现从提议的规划器获得的结果是有效的。规划器的多机器人路径规划模块为所有目标位置计算 SwarmItFIX 机器人的最佳无碰撞路径。最后，发现 SwarmItFIX 机器人的轨迹与串行机械手的工具中心点 (TCP) 的轨迹完全一致。由于任务规划模块计算了 SwarmItFIX 机器人的精确支持位置和支持持续时间，因此发现从提议的规划器获得的结果是有效的。规划器的多机器人路径规划模块为所有目标位置计算 SwarmItFIX 机器人的最佳无碰撞路径。最后，发现 SwarmItFIX 机器人的轨迹与串行机械手的工具中心点 (TCP) 的轨迹完全一致。