Hazard and safety regions for paths with constrained curvature

Abstract

In this paper the problem of collision analysis for a mobile robot operating in a planar environment with moving objects (obstacles) is addressed. The pattern of motion of the potential obstacles cannot be predicted; only a bound on their maximum velocity is available. Based on this information, at its current position the robot constructs the Hazard Region that corresponds to the path it contemplates. If the Hazard Region contains at least one obstacle, then there is a potential for this obstacle to collide with the robot (in which case perhaps another path should be planned). We first derive the solution for Hazard Region for two standard path primitives, a straight line segment and a circular arc segment; the solution is exact, except for one special case (for which the approximation error is estimated). This result is then applied to a more complex case when the path presents a combination of those primitives. Such are, for example, the optimal (shortest) paths with constrained curvature (known as Dubins paths [3]), which connect two points, each with a prescribed direction of motion.