Mobile Robot Autonomous Navigation: A Path Planning Approach

Abstract

This work proposes a novel approach for solving the problem of safe autonomous navigation and path planning for a four-wheel robot. To formulate and state the optimization problem, we first model the robot kinematics, then associate the objective functions and constraints to the model. The multi-objective optimization problem we formulated is then solved using the Decomposition-Coordination (DC) technique. The DC method consists of subdividing the global complex problem into smaller sub-problems that are considerably easier to solve and can be processed in parallel, which minimizes the computational time and allows the algorithm to generate the optimal path in near real-time. The four-wheel robot starts executing the generated path, except if an obstruction comes across, then it will correct its path with the assistance of an obstacle avoidance algorithm. This same process of obstacle avoidance continues until the robot reaches its desired goal. In this paper, we present a brief proof of the convergence and stability of the DC method. We also explain the principle of the collision avoidance algorithm, and finally, we present the results of our simulations.