Robot Operating System Based Path Planning

Abstract

As autonomous cars are catapulted into prominence, path planning has taken the center stage. In this study, We implement the Tangent-bug approach to path planning. We have discretised the Tangent-bug algorithm into a set of independent operations. Transition from one iteration to the next is governed by the value of the range sensor and the convergent criterion. The tangent detection and tangent selection algorithms are tested by implementing on a 2D differential drive robot in the player stage simulator. Contrary to existing solutions, this paper proposes implementation on standard robotics middle-ware ROS (Robot Operating System) allowing effortless deployment on various robotics platforms. Features developed in this module are decentralised, amenable to scaling across multiple robotics platforms with minimal configuration.