PSO-based receding horizon control of mobile robots for local path planning

This paper discusses the problem of local path planning in a static-obstacle environment by designing a PSO-based receding horizon control approach. In order to avoid obstacles, a virtual robot is first designed and moves along the boundary of obstacles. Then, in the framework of receding horizon control, a cost function is proposed where the virtual robot and the target position are integrated, which implies that mobile robots are controlled to keep a security distance and velocity consensus with virtual robots, and to move toward the target position. Next, the proposed cost function with constraints is processed by a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm such that the PSO-based receding horizon control approach is developed. By solving the proposed cost function, a control sequence is obtained and then the first control input is used to enable the robot toward the target and avoid obstacles. Finally, the performance capabilities of the PSO-based receding horizon control approach are illustrated by simulation results.