Robust robotic path planning using level sets

In this paper, we propose a general and robust robotic path planning framework for both planar and terrain environments using level set methods. The framework is general in the sense that it can be used for both 2D and 3D environments. It generates a collision-free optimum paths for the entire or a portion of the configuration space. The optimum planned path can be controlled to follow the safest, shortest, or hybrid path. We have demonstrated the robustness of the proposed framework by correctly extracting all planned paths of complex maps with several obstacles.

[1]  Jean-Claude Latombe,et al.  Numerical potential field techniques for robot path planning , 1991, Fifth International Conference on Advanced Robotics 'Robots in Unstructured Environments.

[2]  B. Faverjon,et al.  Probabilistic Roadmaps for Path Planning in High-Dimensional Con(cid:12)guration Spaces , 1996 .

[3]  Jean-Claude Latombe,et al.  New heuristic algorithms for efficient hierarchical path planning , 1991, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[4]  Aly A. Farag,et al.  Robust centerline extraction framework using level sets , 2005, 2005 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR'05).

[5]  Dinesh Manocha,et al.  Interactive motion planning using hardware-accelerated computation of generalized Voronoi diagrams , 2000, Proceedings 2000 ICRA. Millennium Conference. IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. Symposia Proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065).

[6]  J A Sethian,et al.  Computing geodesic paths on manifolds. , 1998, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

[7]  S. Osher,et al.  Algorithms Based on Hamilton-Jacobi Formulations , 1988 .

[8]  J. Sethian,et al.  Fronts propagating with curvature-dependent speed: algorithms based on Hamilton-Jacobi formulations , 1988 .

[9]  O. Khatib,et al.  Real-Time Obstacle Avoidance for Manipulators and Mobile Robots , 1985, Proceedings. 1985 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[10]  J. Sethian.  1 Advancing Interfaces : Level Set and Fast Marching Methods , 1999 .

[11]  Laurent D. Cohen,et al.  Global Minimum for Active Contour Models: A Minimal Path Approach , 1997, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[12]  J. Sethian,et al.  A Fast Level Set Method for Propagating Interfaces , 1995 .

[13]  Nancy M. Amato,et al.  A randomized roadmap method for path and manipulation planning , 1996, Proceedings of IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.