Kinodynamic Path Planning for Following and Tracking Vehicles

This paper presents a novel approach to planning vehicle paths under kinodynamic constraints in a leader follower scenario where the follower vehicle has to track and follow the leader. This problem is important in the maritime domain where Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) can greatly benefit from an Autonomous Surface Vehicle (ASV) acting as a Communication Relay (CR) and/or a Navigational Aid (NA), typically using acoustic communication. The proposed approach is an extension of Hybrid-A*(HA*), a hybrid version of A* which enables the derivation of paths that are obstacle free and feasible by the vehicle. The proposed algorithm finds a solution, if it exists, for scenarios where the leader and the follower operate under the same kinematic constraints as well as when they differ. Various simulations using multiple configurations and scenarios are presented to validate the approach. Whilst the work presented here has a focus on the maritime environment, the algorithm is applicable to other domains.