Optimal robot task scheduling based on genetic algorithms

In this paper, a method is introduced to determine the optimum sequence of task points visited by the tip of the end effector of an articulated robot and it can be applied to any non-redundant manipulator. This method is based on genetic algorithms and an innovative encoding is introduced to take into account the multiple solutions of the inverse kinematic problem. The results show that the method can determine the optimum sequence of a considerable number of task points for robots up to six-degrees of freedom.