A global path planning algorithm based on the feature map

Abstract

The feature map is a characteristic of high computational efficiency, but it is seldom used in path planning due to its lack of expression of environmental details. To solve this problem, a global path planning algorithm based on the feature map is proposed based on the directionality of line segment features. First, the robot searches the path along the direction of the target position but turns to search in the direction parallel to the obstacle, which it approaches until the line between the robot and the target position does not intersect with obstacles. Then it turns to the target position, keep searching the path. Meanwhile, the problems of the direction selection of turning point, corner point and obstacle circumvention in the searching process are analysed and corresponding solutions are put forth. Finally, a path optimisation algorithm with variable parameters is proposed, making the optimised path shorter and smoother. Simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is superior to A* algorithm in terms of computation time and path length, especially of the computation efficiency.