An Integrated Architecture for Robot Motion Planning and Control in the Presence of Obstacles With Unknown Trajectories

We present an integrated architecture for real-time planning and control of robot motions, for a robot operating in the presence of moving obstacles whose trajectories are not known a priori. The architecture comprises three control loops: an inner loop to linearize the robot dynamics, and two outer loops to implement the attractive and repulsive forces used by an artificial potential field motion planning algorithm. From a control theory perspective, our approach is unique in that the outer control loops are used to effect both desirable transient response and collision avoidance. From a motion planning perspective, our approach is unique in that the dynamic characteristics of both the robot and the moving obstacles are considered. Several simulations are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the planner/controller combination.