Point-to-point paths generation for wheeled mobile robots

Abstract

This paper proposes a point-to-point path generation method consistent with the non-holonomic constraints of a two-wheeled mobile robot. The generated path is described by continuous curves, instead of the traditional chaining of different curves. Parametric polynomials of third degree are used to calculate the robot configuration variables, x(/spl lambda/) and y(/spl lambda/). The orientation angle, /spl theta/(/spl lambda/), is imposed to respect the non-holonomic constraint. The free polynomial coefficients are used to refine the path, avoiding maximal or minimal values of x(/spl lambda/) and y(/spl lambda/) which tends to generate shorter paths, avoiding unnecessary motions.