An Area-Optional Regeneration RRT Algorithm for Dynamic Path Planning of Service Robots

Abstract

At present, the walking routes of service robots are mostly formulated and fixed. Therefore, there are many places that the robots cannot reach and appear inflexible. When obstacles are on the walking route of the robot, collisions may occur. Thus, an area-optional regeneration Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm for dynamic path planning is proposed to plan the walking route of the service robot in real-time in an environment with moving obstacles in this paper. First, sub-regions that need path planning can be determined according to the target points, and each sub-region corresponds to a root node, so that a feasible path that does not touch obstacles through a narrow area can be found faster, and the speed of path planning can be improved. Secondly, in real-time path planning, it is analyzed that whether tree nodes near moving obstacles need to be removed. Besides, how to remove, add, and reconnect are also analyzed, avoiding global planning and improving the efficiency of path planning in frequently changing environments. It is verified by simulation that the efficiency of path planning can be improved after dividing the area, and the effectiveness and superiority of the algorithm are verified in a real-time changing environment.KeywordsArea-optionalRegeneration RRT algorithmObstacle avoidanceReal-time path planning