Incremental environment modeling method based on approximate Voronoi diagram

This paper provides an incremental environment modeling method for mobile robots. The local environment model is illustrated as an approximate Voronoi boundary network constructed by enlarging the obstacle raster. The connectivity of the path network under complex environment is ensured by the second order Approximate Voronoi Boundary Network. The global environment model is obtained by connecting all neighboring local networks. The accurate geometrical data of the obstacles under complex environment are not very necessary, so it can tolerate the error of sensors to some extent. The complexity of path-planning problem relates to the nodes number of a network. Such method embodies the network structure of the environment's free area with less nodes, so the complexity of path planning problem is reduced largely. These algorithms are programmed and verified by using Visual C++.