Robot Path Planning Using Silhouette Method

Aneeta Bhattacharyya, Ekta Singla and Bhaskar Dasgupta

ABSTRACT: This paper presents an implementation of the silhouette method of robot path planning. It is a roadmap based method which consists of generating the silhouette of the work cell, forming a network of simple semi-free paths by connecting the silhouette curves to each other and selecting the path from the start position to the end position, in the con_guration space. Dijkstra's shortest path algorithm is used for tracing the path between the two given points out of the connected graph. A few examples are presented to show the ef- _cacy of the algorithm. The value of this method is that it is complete and it is applicable for a general n-dimensional Cspace, even though the path found by this method is, in general, just a feasible one. The examples used in the present paper are for two-dimensional workspaces, but its planned continuation into higher dimensions is the actual valuable outcome of this research.

KEYWORDS: Robot Motion Planning, Silhouette Method, Dijkstra's Shortest Path Algorithm.

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