Automated guided vehicle path planning without obstacles expansion

Although path planning in known, partially unknown or completely unknown environment has been extensively studied by scientists in general and researchers in particular, the problem is far from being completely solved. In this paper a new method of global path planning for an autonomous automated guided vehicle is presented. The strategy of the developed method is based on two parts: partition of free working space according to obstacles models, and calculation of a set of points within the free working space according to the dimensions of the mobile robot. This set of points constitutes the eventual passage points for the AGV during its navigation between starting and goal points. Once starting and goal points are given, a visibility graph is constructed and an optimal path is searched. The new approach in this method is that the mobile robot is not punctual and the obstacles are not expanded. The validity and the efficiency of the developed algorithm are confirmed by the results obtained by simulation.