THE APPROXIMATE CELL DECOMPOSITION WITH LOCAL NODE REFINEMENT GLOBAL PATH PLANNING METHOD - PATH NODES REFINEMENT AND CURVE PARAMETRIC INTERPOLATION

The paper presents a novel global path planning approach for mobile ro bot navigation in two dimensional workspace cluttered by polygonal obs tacles. The core of the planning method introduced is based on the app roximate cell decomposition method. The advantage of the new method is the employment of novel path refinement procedures of the paths produ ced by approximate cell decomposition that are based on local characte riscics of the workspace. Furthermore, the refined path is parametrica lly interpolated by cubic splines via a physical centripetal model, in troducing the dynamic constraints of mobile robots' motion to the path construction. The method has been implemented both in a computer grap hics simulation and on a real mobile robot cruising at indoor environm ents. Planned paths on several configurations are presented.