Practical Robot Path Planning with Contact and Velocity Constraints

Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this work is to explore the fundamental properties of optimal paths for robots subject to contact and velocity constraints, and to implement practical path planners based on that exploration. This is a collaboration to combine work on time-optimal paths with work on path planning algorithms. The primary application is to plan time-optimal paths for a differential drive mobile robot that navigates a known environment. The planner will construct an explicit model of the configuration space and will search for time-optimal collision-free paths. This defines the goals for the theoretical work: to identify constraints on the motions that reduce the complexity of the search. Optimality and velocity constraints are both a source of such constraints. A better understanding of time-optimal nonholonomic paths will lead to efficient planning of efficient motions.