Smoothed A-star Algorithm for Nonholonomic Mobile Robot Path Planning

There are various path planning methods for mobile robots and one of them is A-star algorithm. It serves fairly well for looking the path accurately. Unfortunately, the conventional A-star algorithm may have some sharp turns. It causes problems for nonholonomic mobile robots to track the path. In this paper, we proposed a scheme to make A-star algorithm smoother. The smoothed path is easier for nonholonomic mobile robots to be tracked. We conduct simulation in the virtual environment that covers the physical behavior of mobile robot. Simulation and experiment verify that the smoothed A-star algorithm can be implemented for nonholonomic mobile robots. Keywords—Nonholonomic Mobile Robot, Path Planning, Smoothed A-star Algorithm.