A Computationally Efficient Path Planner for a Collection of Wheeled Mobile Robots with Limited Sensing Zones

Abstract

Path planning for formations of wheeled mobile robots (WMRs) has been an active research topic of robotics in the recent years. The methods of route generation for WMRs usually utilize complex algorithms, which require global information of the workspace or mapping of the nearby environment. Hence they are not very efficient for formation based motion of large collections of small entry-level agents. In this work a path generation method is developed for synthesizing non-holonomic paths for small unicycle WMRs, and then is integrated into simple geometrical formations for extension to navigation of relatively large groups of small agents. Our technique is based on a computationally low-cost algorithm; and works effectively for transfer of many robots in obstacle cluttered environments. The efficiency of our technique is verified by simulation results.