Collision avoidance of mobile robots in non-stationary environments

A control strategy for real-time collision avoidance of a mobile robot in an environment containing moving obstacles is proposed. Objects, including the robot, are modelled as convex polyhedra. Collision avoidance is guaranteed if the minimum distance between the robot and the objects is nonzero. A nominal trajectory is assumed to be known from offline planning. The main idea is to change the velocity along the nominal trajectory so that collisions are avoided. Consistency with the nominal plan is desirable. The process is formulated as an optimization problem and a close to optimal solution is obtained