Multiple Waypoints Path Planning for a Home Mobile Robot

Abstract

In order to solve the multiple waypoints path planning problem in smart home environment, we adapt the optimal sampling-based algorithm (RRT*) [1] to deal with multiple waypoints navigation, namely Multi-RRT*. Our method constructs multiple trees from multiple waypoints, and these trees use simple extension and connection strategy. When all trees are merged to a single tree, an traversal path will be found. Along this path, mobile robot can visit all the waypoints one by one. We evaluate this method on a designed path planning benchmark scenario and compare with the basic and bias RRT*. Finally, we apply the proposed algorithm on Turtlebot2 with Robot Operate System (ROS) in smart home experimental environment. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate that our algorithm can converge quickly and has good performance in dealing with multiple waypoints path planning problem.