Velocity space approach with region analysis and look-ahead verification for robot navigation

Based on the dynamic window approach (DWA) for robot navigation, this paper presents a local reactive method, called DWA*, for mobile robots to achieve high-speed, smooth, and local-minima-free navigation. The original DWA utilizes only a small part of environmental information to search for a proper motion command in the robot's motion space. Hence, the robot can be easily driven into local-minima area and trapped in complex environment. In order to escape from the local-minima area, DWA* applies region analysis technique to filter improper commands, and uses the A* search algorithm with the look-ahead verification to determine the optimal command which can lead the robot to the best consequence after a designated number of steps.