Event Location: NSH 1109

Abstract: This talk presents an approach to differentially constrained robot
motion planning and efficient re-planning. Satisfaction of differential
constraints is guaranteed by the state lattice, a search space which
consists of feasible motions. Any systematic re-planning algorithm, e.g.
D*, can be utilized to search the state lattice to find a motion plan
that satisfies the differential constraints, and to repair it
efficiently in the event of a change in the environment. Further
efficiency is obtained by varying the fidelity of representation of the
planning problem. High fidelity is utilized where it matters most, while
it is lowered in the areas that do not affect the quality of the plan
significantly. The talk presents a method to modify the fidelity between
re-plans, thereby enabling dynamic flexibility of the search space,
while maintaining its compatibility with re-planning algorithms. The
approach is especially suited for mobile robotics applications in
unknown challenging environments. We successfully applied the motion
planner to robot navigation in this setting.