Motion Planning for an Automated Pick and Place Robot in a Retail Warehouse

Abstract

This paper describes the use of Moveit motion planning software for implementing an articulated robot based automatic pick and place system for a retail warehouse. The proposed system is expected to automatically pick things from a rack and place them in a tote and vice-versa, based on an order file. Currently, these tasks are carried out by humans leading to higher cost of operation. The motion planning methods are demonstrated through both simulation and real world experiments. We believe that the details provided in the paper will act as a tutorial for beginners and reference manual for experienced researchers and practising engineers.