Path Relaxation: Path Planning for a Mobile Robot

Abstract

Path Relaxation is a method of planning safe paths around obstacles for mobile robots. It works in two steps: a global grid search that finds a rough path, followed by a local relaxation step that adjusts each node on the path to lower the overall path cost. The representation used by Path Relaxation allows an explicit tradeoff among length of path, clearance away from obstacles, and distance traveled through unmapped areas.