An Autonomous Mobile Robot Path Planner using Spline Curves and Differential Evolution

Robots that operate autonomously require a path planner that ensures the robot reaches the desired position in a safe manner. The robot will be able to achieve greater speeds along the path if the path is smooth, minimizing the effort of the controller. This work presents two new path planners, called DE-Spline and DE-NURBS. These planners provide a smooth path directly by the cost function optimization using the algorithm L-SHADE (Success-History based Adaptive of Differential Evolution using linear population size reduction algorithm) and two path’s parametrization: Ferguson cubic spline and NURBS. Additionally, it ensures that the robot reaches the target in the desired orientation. The planners are compared with a Vector Field-based planner, widely used in robot soccer. Based on the results, it has been found that both planners provide a smoother path along the shortest path, by accounting for the robot’s starting angle and its goal angle. Furthermore, DE-NURBS provides a greater degree of planning freedom than DESpline.