Motion planning for a mobile robot with a kinematic constraint

The motion planning problem is discussed for a mobile robot with a kinematic constraint, that is, the number of its degrees of freedom is less than the dimension of its configuration space. Addressing first the local problem of turning in a corridor, it is shown that sliding continuously on the outer wall in a turn constitutes a canonical contract trajectory, in the sense that if it is not safe, there cannot be another safe trajectory with no backing-up maneuver. For the case in which no smooth trajectory exists, some simple maneuvers are proposed. A heuristic path-planning algorithm based on a decomposition of free space into cones connected by turns is then presented. It is shown how this approach can be used within the more realistic framework of an actual mobile robot at work by implementing the results as a set of rules of behavior for the robot