Motion Planning of Mobile Robots for Occluded Obstacles

Abstract

Motion planning of mobile robots for occluded obstacles is a challenge in dynamic environments. The occlusion problem states that if an obstacle suddenly appears from the occluded area, the robot might collide with the obstacle. To overcome this, we propose a novel motion planner, the Velocity Obstacle for occlusion (VOO). The VOO is based on a previous motion planner, the Velocity Obstacle (VO), which is effective for moving obstacles. In the proposed motion planner, information uncertainties about occluded obstacles, such as position, velocity, and moving direction, are quantitatively addressed. Thus, the robot based on the VOO is able to move not only among observed obstacles, but also among the occluded ones. Through simulation experiments, the effectiveness of the VOO for the occlusion problem is demonstrated by comparison with the VO.