Path Planning in Unknown Environment With Obstacles Using Virtual Window

A virtual window has been applied for real-time path planning of a mobile robot in the presence of unknown obstacles. The path planner projects a vertical plane ahead of the robot, and calculations of the space ahead and any intersections are done with respect to this window. A radial basis function is used to decipher the information on the window and to relay it to the planner. Using this technique, path planning through an unknown space can be performed which avoids collisions with obstacles present in the space. A simple method of defining an obstacle or many obstacles is also proposed by using rectangles of different sizes.