TABLE OF CONTENTS Antonio Bicchi Centro "E. Piaggio, " University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
Lucia Pallottino Centro "E. Piaggio, " University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy
In this paper we consider the problem of planning motions of a system of multiple vehicles moving in a plane. Each vehicle is modelled as a kinematic system with velocity constraints and curvature bounds. Vehicles can not get closer to each other than a predefined safety distance. For such system of multiple vehicles, we consider the problem of planning optimal paths in the absence of obstacles. The case when a constant distance between vehicles is enforced (such as when cooperative manipulation of objects is performed by the vehicle team) is also considered.
In this paper we consider the problem of planning motions of a system of multiple vehicles moving in a plane. The motions of each vehicle are subject to some constraints: The velocity of the center of the vehicle is parallel to an axis fixed on the vehicle; the velocity is constant along such axis; the steering radius is bounded. Also, a minimum distance between vehicles must be enforced along trajectories.
The task of each vehicle is to reach a given goal configuration from a given start configuration. We consider optimal solutions in the sense of minimizing total completion time.
The literature on optimal path planning for vehicles of this type is very rich. The seminal work of Dubins [4] and the extension to vehicles that can...
