In order to autonomously navigate in an unknown environment, a robotic vehicle must be able to sense obstacles, determine their velocities, and follow a clear path to a goal. However, the perceived location and motion of the obstacles will be uncertain due to the limited accuracy of the robot’s sensors. Thus, it is necessary to develop a system that can avoid moving obstacles using uncertain sensor data. The method proposed here is based on a certainty occupancy grid—which has been used to avoid stationary obstacles in an uncertain environment—in conjunction with the velocity obstacle concept—which allows a robot to avoid well-known moving obstacles. The combination of these two techniques leads to velocity occupancy space: a search space which allows the robot to avoid moving obstacles and navigate efficiently to a goal using uncertain sensor data.
In order to autonomously navigate in an unknown environment, a robotic vehicle must be able to sense obstacles, determine their velocities, and select a collision-free path that will lead quickly to a goal. However, the perceived location and motion of the obstacles will be uncertain due to the limited accuracy of the robot's sensors. Thus, it is necessary to develop a system that can avoid moving obstacles using uncertain sensor data. The method proposed here is based on an occupancy grid -which has been used to avoid stationary obstacles in an uncertain environment -in conjunction with velocity obstacles -which allow a robot to avoid well-known moving obstacles. The combination of these techniques leads to Velocity Occupancy Space (VOS): a search space which allows the robot to avoid moving obstacles and navigate efficiently to a goal using uncertain sensor data. The proposed method is validated by numerous simulation trials.
42R. Bis et al.
The concept of velocity occupancy space was developed in order to facilitate a vehicle in avoiding moving and stationary obstacles and navigating efficiently to a goal using only uncertain sensor data. However, the original velocity occupancy space concept was designed for holonomic vehicles that are capable of instantaneous velocity changes -capabilities that are not possessed by most actual vehicles. This paper presents two methods by which velocity occupancy space can be adapted to work within the kinodynamic constraints of a differential drive vehicle, a common configuration for experimental robots, with bounded acceleration capabilities. These two different adaptations of the velocity occupancy space concept are proposed and evaluated in light of their respective suitability under different vehicle conditions.
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