A new analytical solution to mobile robot trajectory generation in the presence of moving obstacles

• Published in: IEEE transactions on robotics Vol. 20; no. 6; pp. 978 - 993
• Main Authors: Zhihua Qu, Jing Wang, Plaisted, C.E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.12.2004; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Subjects: Adjustable; Applied sciences; Artificial intelligence; Boundary conditions; Car-like robot; chained form; Changing environments; Collision avoidance; Computer science; control theory; systems; Control theory. Systems; Criteria; Exact sciences and technology; Exact solutions; Histograms; Kinematics; Material handling, hoisting. Storage. Packaging; Mathematical analysis; Mathematical models; Mobile robots; Motion-planning; moving obstacle; nonholonomic systems; obstacle avoidance; Optimal control; Pattern recognition. Digital image processing. Computational geometry; piecewise parameterization; polynomial inputs; Polynomials; Process control. Computer integrated manufacturing; Robotics; Robots; Standards development; Trajectories; trajectory generation; Transfert equipment, manipulators; industrial robots; Vehicle dynamics; Trajectory; Moving robot; Modeling; Velocity; Piecewise linearization
• ISSN: 1552-3098
• DOI: 10.1109/TRO.2004.829461

The problem of determining a collision-free path for a mobile robot moving in a dynamically changing environment is addressed in this paper. By explicitly considering a kinematic model of the robot, the family of feasible trajectories and their corresponding steering controls are derived in a closed form and are expressed in terms of one adjustable parameter for the purpose of collision avoidance. Then, a new collision-avoidance condition is developed for the dynamically changing environment, which consists of a time criterion and a geometrical criterion, and it has explicit physical meanings in both the transformed space and the original working space. By imposing the avoidance condition, one can determine one (or a class of) collision-free path(s) in a closed form. Such a path meets all boundary conditions, is twice differentiable, and can be updated in real time once a change in the environment is detected. The solvability condition of the problem is explicitly found, and simulations show that the proposed method is effective.