A Comparison of Different Hybrid Path Planning Algorithms for a Mobile Platform

Mobile robots with wheeled, legged and hybrid bases are currently used in industrial and service sectors for diverse applications. In this paper, a comparative study of various hybrid path planning algorithms for avoiding static obstacles were carried out for determining a most efficient path planning algorithm for a given task. A modified Probabilistic Road Map (PRM) approach was combined with different versions of A* algorithm to create different hybrid path planning algorithms. The nodes and connections were created using a PRM approach and optimal paths were constructed using different versions of the A* algorithm. This paper compared computational time, memory consumed and path length for determining a suitable hybrid algorithm for a given task. The selected hybrid algorithms were evaluated by simulating an obstacle avoidance task of a mobile robot in a structured environment.