A Multi Objective Hybrid Collision-free Optimal Path Finder for Autonomous Robots in Known Static Environments

Abstract

The most important field of robotics study is path planning. Path planning problem in general is an NP-complete problem. Though several attempts have been made using A*, PRM, RRT, and RRT* these algorithms explore too many nodes in the state space, not completely captured kinematic constraints, and are not optimal in real-time. In this paper, a Multi-Objective Hybrid Collision- free Optimal Path Finder (MOHC-OPF) is proposed which is an attempt to obtain a near-optimal solution by exploring fewer nodes compare to the above existing methods while considering kinematic constraints aiming to generate optimal drivable paths. The empirical study revealed that the proposed algorithm is capable of detecting static obstacles and finding a collision-free nearest-optimal, smooth and safe path to the destination in a static known environment. Multiple criteria, including path length, collision-free, execution time, and smooth path, are used to determine an optimal path.. The proposed algorithm shows efficiency in finding the shortest path length and execution time decreased in 90% of the experiments.