Obstacle avoidance for mobile robot based on improved dynamic windowapproach

Abstract

The dynamic window approach has the drawback that it may result in local minima and nonoptimal motiondecision for obstacle avoidance because of not considering the size constraint of a mobile robot. Thus, an improveddynamic window approach is proposed, which takes into account the relation between the size of the mobile robot andthe free space between obstacles. A laser range nder is employed to improve the ability of sensing and prediction of theenvironment, in order to avoid being trapped in a U-shaped obstacle, such as a box canyon. By applying the proposedmethod, the local minima problem can be solved and the optimal path can be obtained. The effectiveness and superiorityis proven by theoretic analysis and simulations.