Resolution Independent Grid-based Path Planning

Abstract

Energy conservation in a rover is an important factor which should be considered for a mission of long duration. Locomotion is one of the primary consumers of energy. The energy used depends on the terrain and the path taken by the robot. This paper develops a planning strategy based on cell decomposition and A* algorithm which would minimize power usage due to locomotion. Cell decomposition is used because of its ability to represent the environment as a grid of continuous values. The current limitation with cell decomposition is that the path produced is resolution-optimal only. The method developed in this paper overcomes this problem and produces resolution-independent optimal solutions for a binary (obstacle/free space) environment and better results for the continuously varying environment than common existing techniques. This is done in a computationally efficient manner.