A hybrid path-planning strategy for mobile robots with limited sensor capabilities

Abstract

This paper introduces a strategy for the path planning problem for platforms with limited sensor and processing capabilities. The proposed algorithm does not require any prior information but assumes that a mapping algorithm is used. If enough information is available, a global path planner finds sub-optimal collision-free paths within the known map. For the real time obstacle avoidance task, a simple and cost-efficient local planner is used, making the algorithm a hybrid global and local planning solution. The strategy was tested in a real, cluttered environment experiment using the Pioneer P3-DX and the Xbox 360 kinect sensor, to validate and evaluate the algorithm efficiency.