Laser simulator

Mohammed Ah Ali,Musa Mailah

doi:10.1177/1729881418804726

Abstract

A novel technique called laser simulator approach for visibility search graph-based path planning has been developed in this article to determine the optimum collision-free path in unknown environment. With such approach, it is possible to apply constraints on the mobile robot trajectory while navigating in complex terrains such as in factories and road environments, as the first work of its kind. The main advantage of this approach is the ability to be used for both global/local path planning in the presence of constraints and obstacles in unknown environments. The principle of the laser simulator approach with all possibilities and cases that could emerge during path planning is explained to determine the path from initial to destination positions in a two-dimensional map. In addition, a comparative study on the laser simulator approach, A* algorithm, Voronoi diagram with fast marching and PointBug algorithms was performed to show the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed approach. A case study on the utilization of the laser simulator in both global and local path planning has been applied in a road roundabout setting which is regarded as a complex environment for robot path planning. In global path planning, the path is generated within a grid map of the roundabout environment to select the path according to the respective road rules. It is also used to recognize the real roundabout from a sequence of images during local path planning in the real-world system. Results show that the performance of the proposed laser simulator approach in both global and local environments is achieved with low computational and path costs, in which the optimum path from the selected start position to the goal point is tracked accordingly in the presence of the obstacles.

Highlights

Path planning in robotic research is one of the most complicated problems that can occur during autonomous navigation in unknown environments
In the Voronoi diagram with fast marching (VDFM), the path is comprised of a number of points that are equidistant from the surrounding polygons or obstacles which are connected together to form the Voronoi’s edges
The main drawbacks of the rapidly exploring random tree (RRT) family algorithms are: [1] high computational time needed due to the necessity to explore the whole map, [2] could not deal with the constrained environment since the replanning path concept in these methods is always associated with the obstacles avoidance without any considerations to the constraints during the movements, [3] creates a non-smooth path due to the continuous repairing of the path and [4] usually, it could not guarantee to reach to the goal through an optimum path

Summary

Introduction

Path planning in robotic research is one of the most complicated problems that can occur during autonomous navigation in unknown environments. Two kinds of path planning approaches for mobile robot have been established, namely the global and local path planning In the former, the surroundings of the environments are totally known and the collision-free trajectory is usually accomplished off-line whereas in the latter, the surroundings of the environments are unknown and feedbacks from sensors are required for real-time path planning.. The current path planning methods have been utilized widely to find the shortest path, optimum path to determine the goal, collision avoidance and collision-free path navigation in difficult environments. None of these approaches can be used effectively in constrained environments such as the road and factory settings, where there are some rules and constraints that must be strictly adhered. The generated path has to guarantee low computational and path costs, avoid obstacles and follow a smooth path to reach the goal

Related works

Method

Part B: Local path planning in the real road roundabout environments

Conclusion