Path Planning for Wheeled Mobile Robot in Partially Known Uneven Terrain.

Journal: Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
Published Date:

Abstract

Path planning for wheeled mobile robots on partially known uneven terrain is an open challenge since robot motions can be strongly influenced by terrain with incomplete environmental information such as locally detected obstacles and impassable terrain areas. This paper proposes a hierarchical path planning approach for a wheeled robot to move in a partially known uneven terrain. We first model the partially known uneven terrain environment respecting the terrain features, including the slope, step, and unevenness. Second, facilitated by the terrain model, we use A⋆ algorithm to plan a global path for the robot based on the partially known map. Finally, the -learning method is employed for local path planning to avoid locally detected obstacles in close range as well as impassable terrain areas when the robot tracks the global path. The simulation and experimental results show that the designed path planning approach provides satisfying paths that avoid locally detected obstacles and impassable areas in a partially known uneven terrain compared with the classical A⋆ algorithm and the artificial potential field method.

Authors

  • Bo Zhang
    Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Key Laboratory of Clinical Cancer Pharmacology and Toxicology Research of Zhejiang Province, Affiliated Hangzhou First People's Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310006, PR China.
  • Guobin Li
    College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
  • Qixin Zheng
    College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
  • Xiaoshan Bai
    College of Mechatronics and Control Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.
  • Yu Ding
    College of Economics and Management, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 211106, China.
  • Awais Khan