Evading of Pedestrian Pursuer and Avoiding Obstacles Using Path-Velocity Planner

Abstract

The ability to navigate mobile robot from initial to target position while maintaining the safety and comfort of pedestrian have to be supported by a collision-avoidance system. In the case of pursuit-evasion when a pedestrian pursues a robot, navigation must be able to evade capture from the pursuer. This paper aims to improve the collision-avoidance method based on Hybrid Velocity Obstacles (HVO) concerning the pursuer. This paper proposes a path-velocity planner that consists of a global path planner, and two velocity planners. These velocity planners combine pure pursuit path following and proposed collision-avoidance method. This research presents a modified version of the Headed Social Force Model (MHSFM) based on modified HVO (MHVO). The linear velocity of MHVO is employed to generate the MHSFM target force. The interaction force of MHSFM is influenced by static and moving objects, and pursuers. The angular velocity of MHVO is used to steer the robot away from the pursuer. This proposed method was evaluated with two simulation scenarios. MHVO-based MHSFM was implemented into a two-wheeled differential-steering mobile robot that navigated in an indoor human environment. The results show that the proposed method is capable to evade a pedestrian pursuer by maintaining the safety and comfort of other pedestrians with an average value of 0.25 on the Threat Level Index (TLI).