Path planning and navigation of mobile robots in unknown environments

For a robot trying to reach places in at least partially unknown environments there is often a need to replan paths online based on information extracted from the surroundings. In the paper is is assumed that the sensing range of the robot is short compared to the length of the paths it plans and the environment is modeled as a graph consisting of nodes and arcs. The replanning problem is solved using the network simplex method. The applicability of the planner is demonstrated by integrating it with a navigation control strategy. Simulation results show that the approach works well.