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This document discusses different approaches for representing configuration spaces to enable efficient path planning for robots. It describes digitizing the space but notes this does not scale well. Common approaches involve converting the space into a graph with waypoints and edges. Visibility graphs connect obstacle vertices but produce paths close to obstacles. Skeletonization/roadmap methods place paths through the middle of free space but paths may be overly long. The document outlines probabilistic roadmap planners which sample free space to generate waypoints and connect nearby points to build a planning graph.

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56 views3 pages

Lec14 PDF

This document discusses different approaches for representing configuration spaces to enable efficient path planning for robots. It describes digitizing the space but notes this does not scale well. Common approaches involve converting the space into a graph with waypoints and edges. Visibility graphs connect obstacle vertices but produce paths close to obstacles. Skeletonization/roadmap methods place paths through the middle of free space but paths may be overly long. The document outlines probabilistic roadmap planners which sample free space to generate waypoints and connect nearby points to build a planning graph.

Uploaded by

JosephKuo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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10/2/2020 CS440 Lectures

CS 440/ECE 448
Fall 2020
Margaret Fleck
Robot planning 5

Searching configuration space


How do we compute a path in a configuration space?

For simple 2D examples, e.g. MP 2, we can digitize the configuration space positions and use a digitized maze
search algorithm. However, this approach scales very badly.

Digitized size increases exponentially in the number of dimensions


Free space tends to be mostly large open areas, where many paths are possible
Precision needs are variable: low in free space, high near obstacles

Normally we convert configuration space into a graph representation containing

waypoints
edges joining them

These graph representations are compact and can be searched efficiently.

Visibility graphs
One graph-based approach uses vertices of objects as waypoints. Edges are straight lines connecting vertices.
This "visibility graph" can be constructed incrementally, directly from a polygonal representation of the
obstacles:

(from Howie Choset's book)

Visibility Graph Construction

This type of representation was popular in early configuration space algorithms. It produces paths of minimal
length. However, these paths aren't very safe because they skim the edges of obstacles. It's risky to get too close
to obstacles. We could easily hit the obstacle if there are any errors in our model of our shape, our position,
and/or the obstacle position. For most practical applications, it's better to have a somewhat longer path that is
reasonably short and doesn't come too close to obstacles.

Skeletonization
Another class of methods converts freespace into a skeleton that goes through the middle of regions, called a
"roadmap". Paths via the skeleton stay far from obstacles, so they tend to be safe but perhaps overly long.

https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/cs440/fa2020/lectures/robots5.html 1/3
10/2/2020 CS440 Lectures
The "Generalized Voronoi Diagram" places the skeleton along curves that are equidistant from two or more
obstacles. The waypoints are the places where these curves intersect.

(from Howie Choset)

The cell decomposition below divides free space somewhat more arbitrarily into trapezoids aligned with the
coordinate axes. Waypoints are then located in the middle of each trapezoid and the middles of its edges.

(from Philippe Cheng, MIT, 2001)

Details of path construction


A roadmap for a configuration space is usually precomputed and then used to plan many paths, e.g. as the robot
moves around its environment. The start and goal of the path will typically not be on the roadmap. So the path is
constructed in three parts:

from start onto nearest point on skeleton


along skeleton
to goal from nearest point on skeleton

Paths assembled from roadmap edges may be longer than needed, and the edges aren't joined together smoothly.
Sharp changes in orientation may be impossible for the robot to execute and/or cause excessive wear on the
joints. So it is standard practice to optimize them (e.g. by smoothing the curve) in a post-processing step.

Probabilistic Roadmap (PRM) Planners


Recent algorithms create roadmaps more efficiently by sampling the configuration space without every
computing the details of all the obstacles. Specifically we

Generate a large number of sample points in configuration space.


https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/cs440/fa2020/lectures/robots5.html 2/3
10/2/2020 CS440 Lectures
Keep (as our waypoints) only the points that are in free space.
Try to connect each waypoint to nearby waypoints.

There are fast algorithms for deciding whether a specific point is inside any obstacle. If waypoints are close
together, there are also simple methods for connecting them, e.g. check whether the straight line between them is
in free space.

Here is a probabilistic roadmap for a simple planning problem (left) and a plan constructed using it (right).

( (from Howie
Choset book)

https://courses.grainger.illinois.edu/cs440/fa2020/lectures/robots5.html 3/3

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