Path Planning and Path Following Using Arrival Time Field for Nonholonomic Mobile Robot

Abstract

Arrival-time-field based method for path planning of non-holonomic mobile robot is proposed in this work. Path following strategy using kinematics control is also presented. First, map dilation at the obstacles region of the map is performed based on mobile robot's maximum radius to guarantee the mobile robot safety. Arrival time field is then generated which the source is at the goal point. Collision-free path is obtained by applying gradient descent to the arrival time field. In order to generate smoother and safer path, speed function variation is added into the arrival time field. Mobile robot is also driven to follow the previously generated path using kinematics control based on simplified kinematics model of mobile robot that has been converted to polar coordinates. Numerical simulation are provided to verify all of these proposed methods.