A PGD-based method for robot global path planning : a primer

Abstract

The present paper shows, for the first time, the technique known as PGD-Vademecum as a global path planner for mobile robots. The main idea of this method is to obtain a Vademecum containing all the possible paths from any start and goal positions derived from a harmonic potential field in a predefined map. The PGD is a numerical technique with three main advantages. The first one is the ability to bring together all the possible Poisson equation solutions for all start and goal combinations in a map, guaranteeing that the resulting potential field does not have deadlocks. The second one is that the PGD-Vademecum is expressed as a sum of uncoupled multiplied terms: the geometric map and the start and goal configurations. Therefore, the harmonic potential field for any start and goal positions can be reconstructed extremely fast, in a nearly negligible computational time, allowing real-time path planning. The third one is that only a few uncoupled parameters are required to reconstruct the potential field with a low discretization error. Simulation results are shown to validate the abilities of this technique.