Hybrid Mobile Robot Path Planning Using Safe JBS-A*B Algorithm and Improved DWA Based on Monocular Camera

Abstract

This paper addresses the formidable challenge of enabling autonomous navigation in Mobile Robots (MRs), focusing on the development of advanced path planning strategies. Despite their pivotal role in diverse applications, they face challenges in dynamic settings due to limitation in existing Global Path Planning (GPP) and Local Path Planning (LPP) techniques. In response to this, we propose an innovative hybrid path planning approach that enhances the A* algorithm with a risk-aware heuristic function and integrates the Jump Point Search (JPS) technique for route optimization. Additionally, B-spline smoothing is employed for perceptually global trajectory refinement. Our approach also includes an innovative improvement to the Dynamic Window Approach (DWA) to align with the proposed enhanced A* algorithm for effective local navigation. Acknowledging the importance of high-quality input in path planning, we present substantial improvements to the IRDC-Net, a monocular-image semantic-segmentation model that we studied previously. Novel improvements include the integration of quantization and the Adam optimizer, along with the implementation of the Balanced Cross-Entropy loss function. These enhancements not only elevate the output quality of IRDC-Net but also reduce the model’s training parameters. The experimental results demonstrate the performance and viability of the proposed algorithm. Ultimately, the hybrid MR’s path planning algorithm exhibits proficiency across various tasks, particularly in addressing the challenge of evading moving obstacles to ensure the robot’s safety while adhering to the global path.