A study on path planning for small mobile robot to move in forest area

Abstract

We are developing an autonomous monitoring system using mobile robot in response to the demands of autonomous monitoring in forest area. The effective path planning is required for autonomous operation. The robot needs to locomote in the grassy area so as to move in a natural forest area, therefore the path route on grassy area have to be considered. The objective of this study was to develop a path planning method for small mobile robot to move in the forest. We focused on the cost used to generate the path and try to add grass vegetation into the cost map. The grass vegetation degree is effective to generate the optimal path, and the robot could move in forest by following the generated path.