Extensible underconstrained robotic motion planning

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• receiving a request to generate a motion for a kinematic system having a plurality of connected entities, wherein the request specifies one or more control points in a robotic operating environment;
• obtaining data representing a plurality of degree-of-freedom (DOF) groups, each DOF group representing a respective entity of plurality of entities of the kinematic system, wherein the DOF groups comprise a plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups and a functional DOF group;
• identifying an entity-specific sampling module for each DOF group, wherein each entity-specific sampling module is configured to use a Cartesian kinematic view for the DOF group, a DOF kinematic view for the DOF group, or both, to generate joint configuration samples;
• obtaining an ordering of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups;
• generating, by a respective entity-specific sampling module for each nonfunctional DOF group of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups, a plurality of joint configuration samples according to the ordering of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups;
• generating, by a respective entity-specific sampling module for the functional DOF group, a final joint configuration sample for one or more of the one or more control points;
• and
• generating a motion comprising a sequence of respective joint configuration samples from each of the plurality of DOF groups.

One or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with computer program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• receiving a request to generate a motion for a kinematic system having a plurality of connected entities, wherein the request specifies one or more control points in a robotic operating environment;
• obtaining data representing a plurality of degree-of-freedom (DOF) groups, each DOF group representing a respective entity of plurality of entities of the kinematic system, wherein the DOF groups comprise a plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups and a functional DOF group;
• identifying an entity-specific sampling module for each DOF group, wherein each entity-specific sampling module is configured to use a Cartesian kinematic view for the DOF group, a DOF kinematic view for the DOF group, or both, to generate joint configuration samples;
• obtaining an ordering of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups;
• generating, by a respective entity-specific sampling module for each nonfunctional DOF group of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups, a plurality of joint configuration samples according to the ordering of the plurality of nonfunctional DOF groups;
• generating, by a respective entity-specific sampling module for the functional DOF group, a final joint configuration sample for one or more of the one or more control points;
• and
• generating a motion comprising a sequence of respective joint configuration samples from each of the plurality of DOF groups.