A smooth local path planning algorithm based on modified visibility graph

Abstract

Path planning is an essential and inevitable problem in robotics. Trapping in local minima and discontinuities often exist in local path planning. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper presents a smooth path planning algorithm based on modified visibility graph. This algorithm consists of three steps: (1) polygons are generated from detected obstacles; (2) a collision-free path is found by simultaneous visibility graph construction and path search by A[Formula: see text] (SVGA); (3) the path is smoothed by B-spline curves and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Simulation experiment results show the effectiveness of this algorithm, and a smooth path can be found fleetly.