Generate a Trajectory Using a Set of Waypoints for KINOVA Gen3 Robot End-Effector

This example uses:

Robotics System Toolbox Support Package for Kinova Gen3 Manipulators Robotics System Toolbox Support Package for Kinova Gen3 Manipulators

This example shows how to generate and interpolate trajectories from a set of waypoints. This example covers common ways of generating trajectories for robot arms such as cubic polynomials, quintic polynomials, and trapezoidal trajectories.

Before proceeding further, see the example Track Pre-Computed Trajectory of Kinova Gen3 Robot End-Effector Using Inverse Kinematics and KINOVA KORTEX MATLAB API. This provides you information on inverse kinematic for robotic manipulators and sending commands to Kinova® Gen3 robot to track pre-computed trajectories.

Clear all output in the live script by right clicking anywhere in the live script and then clicking ‘Clear All Output’ or navigate to VIEW > Clear all Output.

Create the Robot Model

Create a Rigid Body Tree for Gen3 robot, set the home configuration and calculate the transformation at the home configuration:

gen3 = loadrobot("kinovaGen3");
gen3.DataFormat = 'column';
q_home = [0 15 180 -130 0 55 90]'*pi/180;
eeName = 'EndEffector_Link';
T_home = getTransform(gen3, q_home, eeName);
T_home(1:4,4) =  [0;0;0;1];

Visualize the Robot at Home Configuration

show(gen3,q_home);
axis auto;
view([60,10]);

Define a Set of Waypoints Based on the Tool Position

toolPositionHome = [0.455    0.001    0.434];
waypoints = toolPositionHome' + ... 
            [0 0 0 ; -0.1 0.2 0.2 ; -0.2 0 0.1 ; -0.1 -0.2 0.2 ; 0 0 0]';

Define orientation.

The orientation is represented in Euler angles and the convention used is the Tait-Bryan, extrinsic ZYX.

orientations = [pi/2    0   pi/2;
               (pi/2)+(pi/4)      0   pi/2; 
                pi/2    0   pi;
               (pi/2)-(pi/4)       0    pi/2;
                pi/2    0   pi/2]';

Define array of waypoint times.

waypointTimes = 0:7:28;
ts = 0.25;
trajTimes = 0:ts:waypointTimes(end);

Define boundary conditions for velocity and acceleration.

waypointVels = 0.1 *[ 0  1  0;
                     -1  0  0;
                      0 -1  0;
                      1  0  0;
                      0	 1  0]';

waypointAccels = zeros(size(waypointVels));
waypointAccelTimes = diff(waypointTimes)/4;

Create Inverse Kinematics Solver and Set Parameters

ik = inverseKinematics('RigidBodyTree',gen3);
ikWeights = [1 1 1 1 1 1];
ikInitGuess = q_home';
ikInitGuess(ikInitGuess > pi) = ikInitGuess(ikInitGuess > pi) - 2*pi;
ikInitGuess(ikInitGuess < -pi) = ikInitGuess(ikInitGuess < -pi) + 2*pi;

Set Plot and Display Waypoints

plotMode = 1; % 0 = None, 1 = Trajectory, 2 = Coordinate Frames
show(gen3,q_home,'Frames','off','PreservePlot',false);
hold on
if plotMode == 1
    hTraj = plot3(waypoints(1,1),waypoints(2,1),waypoints(3,1),'b.-');
end
plot3(waypoints(1,:),waypoints(2,:),waypoints(3,:),'ro','LineWidth',2);
axis auto;
view([30 15]);

Solve the Inverse Kinematics for Each Waypoint

Set includeOrientation to zero if you do not want to define different orientation at different waypoints. When includeOrientation is set to false, a default orientation is used to compute the trajectory.

includeOrientation = true; 
numWaypoints = size(waypoints,2);
numJoints = numel(gen3.homeConfiguration);
jointWaypoints = zeros(numJoints,numWaypoints);
for idx = 1:numWaypoints
    if includeOrientation
        tgtPose = trvec2tform(waypoints(:,idx)') * eul2tform(orientations(:,idx)');
    else
        tgtPose = trvec2tform(waypoints(:,idx)') * eul2tform([pi/2 0 pi/2]); %#ok<UNRCH> 
    end
    [config,info] = ik(eeName,tgtPose,ikWeights',ikInitGuess');
    jointWaypoints(:,idx) = config';
end

Generate a Trajectory in Joint Space using Interpolation

Select method of interpolation from trapezoidal velocity profiles, third-order polynomial, fifth-order polynomial or B-spline polynomial by modifying the variable trajType.

trajType = 'trap';
switch trajType
    case 'trap'
        [q,qd,qdd] = trapveltraj(jointWaypoints,numel(trajTimes), ...
            'AccelTime',repmat(waypointAccelTimes,[numJoints 1]), ... 
            'EndTime',repmat(diff(waypointTimes),[numJoints 1]));
                            
    case 'cubic'
        [q,qd,qdd] = cubicpolytraj(jointWaypoints,waypointTimes,trajTimes, ... 
            'VelocityBoundaryCondition',zeros(numJoints,numWaypoints));
        
    case 'quintic'
        [q,qd,qdd] = quinticpolytraj(jointWaypoints,waypointTimes,trajTimes, ... 
            'VelocityBoundaryCondition',zeros(numJoints,numWaypoints), ...
            'AccelerationBoundaryCondition',zeros(numJoints,numWaypoints));
        
    case 'bspline'
        ctrlpoints = jointWaypoints; % Can adapt this as needed
        [q,qd,qdd] = bsplinepolytraj(ctrlpoints,waypointTimes([1 end]),trajTimes);
        % Remove the first velocity sample
        qd(:,1) = zeros (7,1);    
    otherwise
        error('Invalid trajectory type! Use ''trap'', ''cubic'', ''quintic'', or ''bspline''');
end

Visualize the Solution

for idx = 1:numel(trajTimes)  
 
    config = q(:,idx)';
    
    % Find Cartesian points for visualization
    eeTform = getTransform(gen3,config',eeName);
    if plotMode == 1
        eePos = tform2trvec(eeTform);
        set(hTraj,'xdata',[hTraj.XData eePos(1)], ...
                  'ydata',[hTraj.YData eePos(2)], ...
                  'zdata',[hTraj.ZData eePos(3)]);
    elseif plotMode == 2
        plotTransforms(tform2trvec(eeTform),tform2quat(eeTform),'FrameSize',0.05);
    end
 
    % Show the robot
    show(gen3,config','Frames','off','PreservePlot',false);
    title(['Trajectory at t = ' num2str(trajTimes(idx))])
    drawnow   
    
end

Send the Trajectory to the Hardware

Expected motion of the robot (Assuming you are starting from the retract position)

Press ‘y’ and hit enter if you want to command the Kinova Gen3 robot to track the calculated trajectory or hit enter to finish the example.

prompt = 'Do you want to send same trajectory to the hardware? y/n [n]: ';
str = input(prompt,'s');

if isempty(str)
    str = 'n';
end
 
if str == 'n'
    clear;
    return;
end

Command Kinova Gen3 robot to track the pre-computed trajectory

q = q*180/pi;
qd = qd*180/pi;
qdd = qdd*180/pi;
 
timestamp = (0:0.001:waypointTimes(end))';
qs_deg = interp1(trajTimes',q',timestamp);
vel = interp1(trajTimes',qd',timestamp);
acc = interp1(trajTimes',qdd',timestamp);

Connect to the robot

Simulink.importExternalCTypes(which('kortex_wrapper_data.h'));
gen3Kinova = kortex();
gen3Kinova.ip_address = '192.168.1.10';
gen3API.user = 'admin';
gen3API.password = 'admin';
 
isOk = gen3Kinova.CreateRobotApisWrapper();
if isOk
   disp('You are connected to the robot!'); 
else
   error('Failed to establish a valid connection!'); 
end

Visualize the actual movement of the robot

title('Actual Movement of the Robot');
[~,~, actuatorFb, ~] = gen3Kinova.SendRefreshFeedback();
show(gen3, ((actuatorFb.position)*pi/180)','Frames','off','PreservePlot',false);
drawnow;

Send Robot to Starting Point of the Trajectory

jointCmd = wrapTo360(qs_deg(1,:));
constraintType = int32(0);
speed = 0;
duration = 0;
 
isOk = gen3Kinova.SendJointAngles(jointCmd, constraintType, speed, duration);
if isOk
    disp('success');
else
    disp('SendJointAngles cmd error');
    return;
end

Check if the robot has reached the starting position

while 1
    [isOk,~, actuatorFb, ~] = gen3Kinova.SendRefreshFeedback();
    show(gen3, ((actuatorFb.position)*pi/180)','Frames','off','PreservePlot',false);
    drawnow;
    if isOk
        if max(abs(wrapTo360(qs_deg(1,:))-actuatorFb.position)) < 0.1
            disp('Starting point reached.')
            break;
        end 
    else
        error('SendRefreshFeedback error')
    end
end

Send Pre-Computed Trajectory

isOk = gen3Kinova.SendPreComputedTrajectory(qs_deg.', vel.', acc.', timestamp.', size(timestamp,1));
if isOk
    disp('SendPreComputedTrajectory success');
else
    disp('SendPreComputedTrajectory cmd error');
end

Check if the robot has reached the end position

status = 1;
%% Check if the robot has reached the end position
while status
    [isOk,~, actuatorFb, ~] = gen3Kinova.SendRefreshFeedback();
    show(gen3, ((actuatorFb.position)*pi/180)','Frames','off','PreservePlot',false);
    drawnow;
    if isOk
        [~,status] = gen3Kinova.GetMovementStatus();
    else
        error('SendRefreshFeedback error');
    end
end

disp('Reached to Final waypoint.');

Disconnect from the Robot

Use this command to disconnect from Kinova Gen3 robot Robot.

isOk = gen3Kinova.DestroyRobotApisWrapper();

Clear Workspace.

clear;