Towards Efficient Trajectory Generation for Ground Robots beyond 2D Environment

TL;DR

This paper introduces an optimization-based planning framework for ground robots that accounts for both active and passive height variations in 3D environments, enabling more versatile navigation beyond traditional 2D planning.

Contribution

It presents a novel trajectory planning method that considers 3D terrain and robot height control, improving navigation capabilities for ground robots in complex environments.

Findings

The proposed planner produces smooth, high-quality trajectories.

Simulation and real-world tests demonstrate efficiency and effectiveness.

The framework supports various ground robot types with z-axis degrees of freedom.

Abstract

With the development of robotics, ground robots are no longer limited to planar motion. Passive height variation due to complex terrain and active height control provided by special structures on robots require a more general navigation planning framework beyond 2D. Existing methods rarely considers both simultaneously, limiting the capabilities and applications of ground robots. In this paper, we proposed an optimization-based planning framework for ground robots considering both active and passive height changes on the z-axis. The proposed planner first constructs a penalty field for chassis motion constraints defined in R3 such that the optimal solution space of the trajectory is continuous, resulting in a high-quality smooth chassis trajectory. Also, by constructing custom constraints in the z-axis direction, it is possible to plan trajectories for different types of ground robots which have z-axis degree of freedom. We performed simulations and realworld experiments to verify the efficiency and trajectory quality of our algorithm.