Motion planning for AmigoBot with line-segment-based map and Voronoi diagram

The motion planning problem for an AmigoBot with only sonar sensors is addressed in this paper. A line-segment-based map is constructed incrementally from readings of sonar sensors. Map-building algorithms are proposed to reduce the size of the map while maintaining the complete and accurate information about the environment. Then the Voronoi diagram of the line-segment-based map is generated with Fortune's sweep-line algorithm. The Voronoi diagram is searched with Dijkstras algorithm to determine the shortest accessible path from the initial configuration to the goal. The notion of clearance is defined to guarantee the safety of the path when obstacles are encountered. Finally, a path-tracking control law with line-of-sight approach is designed to follow the reference path. A simulation is conducted to verify that motion planning approach designed and the results show that it is effective for an AmigoBot to accomplish the given task in unknown environments.