Collision-free path planning for nonholonomic mobile robots using a new obstacle representation in the velocity space

This paper presents a collision-free path planner for mobile robot navigation in an unknown environment subject to nonholonomic constraints. This planner is well adapted for use with embarked sensors, because it uses only the distance information between the robot and the obstacles. The collision-free path-planning is based on a new representation of the obstacles in the velocity space. The obstacles in the influence zone are mapped as linear constraints into the velocity space of the robot, forming a convex subset that represents the velocities that the robot can use without collision with the objects. The planner is composed by two modules, termed "reaching the goal" and "boundary, following". The major advantages of this method are the very short calculation time and a continuous stable behavior of the velocities. The results presented demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed method for solving the collision-free path-planning problem.