Human experience–inspired path planning for robots. (9th February 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Gong, Wenyong; Xie, Xiaohua; Liu, Yong-Jin
• Is Part Of: International journal of advanced robotic systems. Volume 15:Number 1(2018:Jan./Feb.)
• Publication Date: 2018-02-09
• Subjects: Path planning -- human experience -- A* search algorithm -- path smoothing; Robotics -- Periodicals; Robotics; Periodicals; 629.892
• DOI: 10.1177/1729881418757046
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1729-8806

Abstract

In this article, we present a human experience–inspired path planning algorithm for service robots. In addition to considering the path distance and smoothness, we emphasize the safety of robot navigation. Specifically, we build a speed field in accordance with several human driving experiences, like slowing down or detouring at a narrow aisle, and keeping a safe distance to the obstacles. Based on this speed field, the path curvatures, path distance, and steering speed are all integrated to form an energy function, which can be efficiently solved by the A* algorithm to seek the optimal path by resorting to an admissible heuristic function estimated from the energy function. Moreover, a simple yet effective fast path smoothing algorithm is proposed so as to ease the robots steering. Several examples are presented, demonstrating the effectiveness of our human experience–inspired path planning method.