29 research outputs found
Probabilistic completeness of RRT for geometric and kinodynamic planning with forward propagation
The Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm has been one of the most
prevalent and popular motion-planning techniques for two decades now.
Surprisingly, in spite of its centrality, there has been an active debate under
which conditions RRT is probabilistically complete. We provide two new proofs
of probabilistic completeness (PC) of RRT with a reduced set of assumptions.
The first one for the purely geometric setting, where we only require that the
solution path has a certain clearance from the obstacles. For the kinodynamic
case with forward propagation of random controls and duration, we only consider
in addition mild Lipschitz-continuity conditions. These proofs fill a gap in
the study of RRT itself. They also lay sound foundations for a variety of more
recent and alternative sampling-based methods, whose PC property relies on that
of RRT
Completeness of Randomized Kinodynamic Planners with State-based Steering
Probabilistic completeness is an important property in motion planning.
Although it has been established with clear assumptions for geometric planners,
the panorama of completeness results for kinodynamic planners is still
incomplete, as most existing proofs rely on strong assumptions that are
difficult, if not impossible, to verify on practical systems. In this paper, we
focus on an important class of kinodynamic planners, namely those that
interpolate trajectories in the state space. We provide a proof of
probabilistic completeness for these planners under assumptions that can be
readily verified from the system's equations of motion and the user-defined
interpolation function. Our proof relies crucially on a property of
interpolated trajectories, termed second-order continuity (SOC), which we show
is tightly related to the ability of a planner to benefit from denser sampling.
We analyze the impact of this property in simulations on a low-torque pendulum.
Our results show that a simple RRT using a second-order continuous
interpolation swiftly finds solution, while it is impossible for the same
planner using standard Bezier curves (which are not SOC) to find any solution.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figure
Combining Homotopy Methods and Numerical Optimal Control to Solve Motion Planning Problems
This paper presents a systematic approach for computing local solutions to
motion planning problems in non-convex environments using numerical optimal
control techniques. It extends the range of use of state-of-the-art numerical
optimal control tools to problem classes where these tools have previously not
been applicable. Today these problems are typically solved using motion
planners based on randomized or graph search. The general principle is to
define a homotopy that perturbs, or preferably relaxes, the original problem to
an easily solved problem. By combining a Sequential Quadratic Programming (SQP)
method with a homotopy approach that gradually transforms the problem from a
relaxed one to the original one, practically relevant locally optimal solutions
to the motion planning problem can be computed. The approach is demonstrated in
motion planning problems in challenging 2D and 3D environments, where the
presented method significantly outperforms a state-of-the-art open-source
optimizing sampled-based planner commonly used as benchmark