Algorithms for rough terrain trajectory planning

Abstract

This paper deals with motion planning on rough terrain for mobile robots. The aim is to develop efficient algorithms, suitable for various types of robots. On rough terrain, the planned trajectory must verify several validity constraints : stability of the robot, mechanical limits and collision avoidance with the ground. Our approach relies on a static and kinematic model of the robot. Efficient geometric algorithms have been developed, taking advantage of each vehicle's specificities. Motion planning relies on an incremental search in the discretized configuration space and uses efficient heuristics based on terrain characteristic to limit the size of the search space. Simulation results present trajectories planned in a few seconds. The second part takes into account uncertainties to improve trajectory robustness: uncertainties on the terrain model and the position of the robot. The adaptation of the previous algorithms allows us to find robust trajectories, without any excessive time increase.