Combining a Probabilistic Sampling Technique and Simple Heuristics to Solve the Dynamic Path Planning Problem (original) (raw)
Related papers
A Multi-stage Probabilistic Algorithm for Dynamic Path-Planning
2009
Probabilistic sampling methods have become very popular to solve single-shot path planning problems. Rapidlyexploring Random Trees (RRTs) in particular have been shown to be efficient in solving high dimensional problems. Even though several RRT variants have been proposed for dynamic replanning, these methods only perform well in environments with infrequent changes. This paper addresses the dynamic path planning problem by combining simple techniques in a multi-stage probabilistic algorithm. This algorithm uses RRTs for initial planning and informed local search for navigation. We show that this combination of simple techniques provides better responses to highly dynamic environments than the RRT extensions.
Online path planning based on Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees
Industrial Technology (ICIT), …
This paper proposes an online path-planning algorithm based on Rapidly-Exploring Random Trees (RRT) applied to the autonomous navigation of a mobile robot. The proposed planner includes two heuristics to improve the performance and generates a set of collision-free paths, from which the one with the most similarity to a reference path given by a supervisor human operator is chosen. This reference can be given a priori when setting the start and goal positions, and be defined as the straight path between them. Simulations and experiments are made to evaluate the performance of the proposed method.
Multipartite RRTs for Rapid Replanning in Dynamic Environments
Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007
The Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm has found widespread use in the field of robot motion planning because it provides a single-shot, probabilistically complete planning method which generalizes well to a variety of problem domains. We present the Multipartite RRT (MP-RRT), an RRT variant which supports planning in unknown or dynamic environments. By purposefully biasing the sampling distribution and re-using branches from previous planning iterations, MP-RRT combines the strengths of existing adaptations of RRT for dynamic motion planning. Experimental results show MP-RRT to be very effective for planning in dynamic environments with unknown moving obstacles, replanning in high-dimensional configuration spaces, and replanning for systems with spacetime constraints.
An Adaptive Rapidly-Exploring Random Tree
IEEE/CAA Journal of Automatica Sinica, 2022
Sampling-based planning algorithms play an important role in high degree-of-freedom motion planning (MP) problems, in which rapidly-exploring random tree (RRT) and the faster bidirectional RRT (named RRT-Connect) algorithms have achieved good results in many planning tasks. However, sampling-based methods have the inherent defect of having difficultly in solving planning problems with narrow passages. Therefore, several algorithms have been proposed to overcome these drawbacks. As one of the improved algorithms, Rapidly-exploring random vines (RRV) can achieve better results, but it may perform worse in cluttered environments and has a certain environmental selectivity. In this paper, we present a new improved planning method based on RRT-Connect and RRV, named adaptive RRT-Connect (ARRT-Connect), which deals well with the narrow passage environments while retaining the ability of RRT algorithms to plan paths in other environments. The proposed planner is shown to be adaptable to a variety of environments and can accomplish path planning in a short time.
Single-query Path Planning Using Sample-efficient Probability Informed Trees
arXiv (Cornell University), 2021
In this work, we present a novel sampling-based path planning method, called SPRINT. The method finds solutions for high dimensional path planning problems quickly and robustly. Its efficiency comes from minimizing the number of collision check samples. This reduction in sampling relies on heuristics that predict the likelihood that samples will be useful in the search process. Specifically, heuristics (1) prioritize more promising search regions; (2) cull samples from local minima regions; and (3) steer the search away from previously observed collision states. Empirical evaluations show that our method finds shorter or comparable-length solution paths in significantly less time than commonly used methods. We demonstrate that these performance gains can be largely attributed to our approach to achieve sample efficiency.
Robotic Path Planning using Rapidly exploring Random Trees
Rapidly exploring Random Tree (RRT) path planning methods provide feasible paths between a start and goal point in configuration spaces containing obstacles, sacrificing optimality (eg. Shortest path) for speed. The raw resultant paths are generally jagged and the cost of extending the tree can increase steeply as the number of existing branches grow. This paper provides details of a speed-up method using KD trees and a path smoothing procedure of practical interest.
Multi-Goal Path Planning Using Multiple Random Trees
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters
In this paper, we propose a novel sampling-based planner for multi-goal path planning among obstacles, where the objective is to visit predefined target locations while minimizing the travel costs. The order of visiting the targets is often achieved by solving the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) or its variants. TSP requires to define costs between the individual targets, which-in a map with obstacles-requires to compute mutual paths between the targets. These paths, found by path planning, are used both to define the costs (e.g., based on their length or timeto-traverse) and also they define paths that are later used in the final solution. To enable TSP finding a good-quality solution, it is necessary to find these target-to-target paths as short as possible. We propose a sampling-based planner called Space-Filling Forest (SFF*) that solves the part of finding collision-free paths. SFF* uses multiple trees (forest) constructed gradually and simultaneously from the targets and attempts to find connections with other trees to form the paths. Unlike Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT), which uses the nearest-neighbor rule for selecting nodes for expansion, SFF* maintains an explicit list of nodes for expansion. Individual trees are grown in a RRT* manner, i.e., with rewiring the nodes to minimize their cost. Computational results show that SFF* provides shorter targetto-target paths than existing approaches, and consequently, the final TSP solutions also have a lower cost.
PLOS ONE, 2024
One of the key challenges in robotics is the motion planning problem. This paper presents a local trajectory planning and obstacle avoidance strategy based on a novel sampling-based path-finding algorithm designed for autonomous vehicles navigating complex environments. Although sampling-based algorithms have been extensively employed for motion planning, they have notable limitations, such as sluggish convergence rate, significant search time volatility, a vast, dense sample space, and unsmooth search routes. To overcome the limitations, including slow convergence, high computational complexity, and unnecessary search while sampling the whole space, we have proposed the RE-RRT* (Robust and Efficient RRT*) algorithm. This algorithm adapts a new sampling-based path-finding algorithm based on sampling along the displacement from the initial point to the goal point. The sample space is constrained during each stage of the random tree's growth, reducing the number of redundant searches. The RE-RRT* algorithm can converge to a shorter path with fewer iterations. Furthermore, the Choose Parent and Rewire processes are used by RE-RRT* to improve the path in succeeding cycles continuously. Extensive experiments under diverse obstacle settings are performed to validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The results demonstrate that the proposed approach outperforms existing methods in terms of computational time, sampling space efficiency, speed, and stability.
Anytime, Dynamic Planning in High-dimensional Search Spaces
Proceedings 2007 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2007
We present a sampling-based path planning and replanning algorithm that produces anytime solutions. Our algorithm tunes the quality of its result based on available search time by generating a series of solutions, each guaranteed to be better than the previous ones by a user-defined improvement bound. When updated information regarding the underlying search space is received, the algorithm efficiently repairs its previous solution. The result is an approach that provides lowcost solutions to high-dimensional search problems involving partially-known or dynamic environments. We discuss theoretical properties of the algorithm, provide experimental results on a simulated multirobot planning scenario, and present an implementation on a team of outdoor mobile robots.
An Efficient Sampling-Based Method for Online Informative Path Planning in Unknown Environments
IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters, 2020
The ability to plan informative paths online is essential to robot autonomy. In particular, sampling-based approaches are often used as they are capable of using arbitrary information gain formulations. However, they are prone to local minima, resulting in sub-optimal trajectories, and sometimes do not reach global coverage. In this paper, we present a new RRT*inspired online informative path planning algorithm. Our method continuously expands a single tree of candidate trajectories and rewires nodes to maintain the tree and refine intermediate paths. This allows the algorithm to achieve global coverage and maximize the utility of a path in a global context, using a single objective function. We demonstrate the algorithm's capabilities in the applications of autonomous indoor exploration as well as accurate Truncated Signed Distance Field (TSDF)-based 3D reconstruction on-board a Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV). We study the impact of commonly used information gain and cost formulations in these scenarios and propose a novel TSDF-based 3D reconstruction gain and cost-utility formulation. Detailed evaluation in realistic simulation environments show that our approach outperforms sampling-based state of the art methods in these tasks. Experiments on a real MAV demonstrate the ability of our method to robustly plan in real-time, exploring an indoor environment with on-board sensing and computation. We make our framework available for future research.