Path planning via variant proportional guidance for robotic dynamic grasping (Q2705736)

This paper proposes a new method for path planning in a robotic system that requires coordination of robot hand or gripper and robotic vision. The authors call their method ``variant proportional guidance''; it is an adaptation of the proportional guidance (PG) method used for missile interception. Unlike the PG and other similar approaches, the visual angle of the robot gripper in the authors' method is set to change regularly. This insures that the gripper intersects the target from ahead of the target's direction of movement. In addition, the authors allow the orientation of the gripper to be adjusted as it approaches the target; this allows the gripper to grasp the target from ahead by outflanking it. The authors claim that their method is superior to traditional tracking-path planning methods because it can tolerate larger errors in the estimated position of the target, and because it is more capable of handling maneuvering targets. Simulations and experiments presented by the authors show the practicality and effectiveness of their approach.