Development of a Shape Aware Path Planning Algorithm for a Mobile Robot

A shape aware path planning algorithm is necessary for real time execution of a task by a mobile robot. Current work proposes a shape-aware A* path planning approach to facilitate accurate path finding in a given environment to accommodate the shape of mobile robot for differential wheeled mobile robot. The real-time map allows to assign a favorable cost value for each grid location of the map which later used to develop a shape aware global path planning strategy by using the well-known A* algorithm. For implementation and validation, an overhead camera is used to capture the task space and the obstacles which work in Robot operating software platform. The proposed method was tested in a real-time environment and proved the algorithm is capable of moving in a path that minimizes the distractions to static obstacles.