Smooth trajectory planning for a car in a structured world

The trajectory planning for a car-i.e. a nonholonomic vehicle whose turning radius is lower bounded-is studied in a static and structured world. For the structure of the world, the existence of natural lanes within which the vehicle is able to move is assumed. A smooth trajectory planner is proposed which, when given the polygonal line S representing the spine of a lane generates a trajectory C avoiding the obstacles of the world and which is smooth-i.e. without backing up maneuvers-and executable by the vehicle according to its own kinematic constraints. C is topologically equivalent to S-i.e. C must remain in the lane defined by S. C is made up of straight segments and circular arcs