The Ariadne's Clew Algorithm

TL;DR

The Ariadne's Clew algorithm is a novel path planning method for high-dimensional, dynamic environments that efficiently finds paths in about one second without pre-processing.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach combining Search and Explore algorithms for real-time path planning in complex, dynamic spaces.

Findings

Path found in about one second

Works in high-dimensional spaces with moving obstacles

No pre-processing required

Abstract

We present a new approach to path planning, called the "Ariadne's clew algorithm". It is designed to find paths in high-dimensional continuous spaces and applies to robots with many degrees of freedom in static, as well as dynamic environments - ones where obstacles may move. The Ariadne's clew algorithm comprises two sub-algorithms, called Search and Explore, applied in an interleaved manner. Explore builds a representation of the accessible space while Search looks for the target. Both are posed as optimization problems. We describe a real implementation of the algorithm to plan paths for a six degrees of freedom arm in a dynamic environment where another six degrees of freedom arm is used as a moving obstacle. Experimental results show that a path is found in about one second without any pre-processing.