Potential guided directional-RRT* for accelerated motion planning in cluttered environments

Recently proposed Rapidly Exploring Random Tree Star (RRT*) algorithm which is an extension of Rapidly Exploring Random Tree (RRT) provides collision free asymptotically optimal path regardless of obstacle´s geometry in a given environment. However, the drawback of this technique is a slow processing rate. This paper presents our proposed Potential Guided Directional-RRT* which addresses this problem and provides accelerated processing rate by incorporating Artificial Potential Fields Algorithm into RRT*. Artificial Potential Field algorithm directs the random samples toward the goal which leads to an increase in the speed of RRT*. We have presented simulation results of our technique and their comparison with results of RRT* under different environmental conditions to demonstrate apace execution rate of our novel idea.