Performance analysis of path planning techniques for autonomous mobile robots

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative study on path planning techniques for autonomous mobile robots in a cluttered environment. It investigates four well known path planning algorithms and compares their performance with the proposed free configuration eigen-spaces (FCE) path planning method. In total, five path planning algorithms are considered towards the solution of the path planning problem under certain working parameters. These working parameters are the computation time needed to find a solution, the distance traveled and the amount of turning by the autonomous mobile robot. A comparison of results has been analyzed. This study will enable readers to identify, which of the proposed methods is most suitable for application under the working parameters the user wants to optimize. The findings have been summarized in the conclusion section. The techniques were implemented in the real-time robotic software Player/Stage. Further analysis were done using MATLAB mathematical computation software.