A Dual Forward–Backward Algorithm to Solve Convex Model Predictive Control for Obstacle Avoidance in a Logistics Scenario

Abstract

In recent years, the logistics sector expanded significantly, leading to the birth of smart warehouses. In this context, a key role is represented by autonomous mobile robots, whose main challenge is to find collision-free paths in their working environment in real-time. Model Predictive Control Algorithms combined with global path planners, such as the A* algorithm, show great potential in providing efficient navigation for collision avoidance problems. This paper proposes a Dual Forward–Backward Algorithm to find the solution to a Model Predictive Control problem in which the task of driving a mobile robotic platform into a bi-dimensional semi-structured environment is formulated in a convex optimisation framework.