Online on-Road Motion Planning Based on Hybrid Potential Field Model for Car-Like Robot

The application of Middle-sized Car-like Robots (MCRs) in indoor and outdoor road scenarios is becoming broader and broader. To achieve the goal of stable and efficient movement of the MCRs on the road, a motion planning algorithm based on the Hybrid Potential Field Model (HPFM) is proposed in this paper. Firstly, the artificial potential field model improved with the eye model is used to generate a safe and smooth initial path that meets the road constraints. Then, the path constraints such as curvatures and obstacle avoidance are converted into an unconstrained weighted objective function. The efficient least-squares & quasi-Newton fusion algorithm is used to optimize the initial path to obtain a smooth path curve suitable for the MCR. Finally, the speed constraints are converted into a weighted objective function based on the path curve to get the best speed profile. Numerical simulation and practical prototype experiments are carried out on different road scenes to verify the performance of the proposed algorithm. The results show that re-planned trajectories can satisfy the path constraints and speed constraints. The real-time re-planning period is 184 ms, which demonstrates the proposed approach’s effectiveness and feasibility.