Local Path Planning: Dynamic Window Approach With Virtual Manipulators Considering Dynamic Obstacles

Local path planning considering static and dynamic obstacles for a mobile robot is one of challenging research topics. Conventional local path planning methods generate path candidates by assuming constant velocities for a certain period time. Therefore, path candidates consist of straight line and arc paths. These path candidates are not suitable for dynamic environments and narrow spaces. This paper proposes a novel local path planning method based on dynamic window approach with virtual manipulators (DWV). DWV consists of dynamic window approach (DWA) and virtual manipulator (VM). DWA is the local path planning method that performs obstacle avoidance for static obstacles under robot constraints. DWA also generates straight line and arc path candidates by assuming constant velocities. VM generates velocities of reflective motion by using virtual manipulators and environmental information. DWV generates path candidates by variable velocities modified by VM and predicted positions of static and dynamic obstacles. Therefore, in an environment with dynamic obstacles, the obstacle-avoidable paths which include non-straight line and non-arc paths are generated. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed from simulation and experimental results.