Collision avoidance path planning for hospital robot with consideration of disabled person's movement characteristic

A novel algorithm of collision avoidance path planning, especially for hospital robot, is proposed. The algorithm puts into consideration the movement characteristic of various kinds of disabled person, which are represented by wheelchair user and crutch user here. A model which implies the energy to move to a certain point from present location is introduced for each kind of disabled person. The model does not only consist of the distance to target point, but also the rotation angle and the person's easiness to change direction. Based on what kind of person the oncoming person is, the robot uses the appropriate model and estimates the easiest path for the person to move. Then, the robot plans an avoidance path.

I. Introduction

Autonomous mobile robots which are able to avoid collision with static and moving obstacles have been developed by many research groups. Some mobile robots have also been applied in hospitals [1]–[9]. Hospital robots are mainly used to deliver goods, such as blood specimens, et al, from one place to another within the hospital. Hospital robots are required to avoid the people safely during the delivery. Each research group has developed different ways of collision avoidance for their robots.