Autonomous navigation for a differential drive robot in a partially known environment

Abstract

This paper presents a proposed algorithm with the implementation of the A* algorithm for path planning in a partially known environment. By using a differential mobile robot, the navigation is accomplished with a LiDAR sensor that detects any potential changes in the environment. The proposed algorithm estimates a safety path-planning trajectory from the origin of the robot to a target coordinate given by the user. If the robot encounters an unknown obstacle that does not belong to the known environment it will update the map, and recalculate the trajectory, executing it and proceed with the new path. Experimental results were considered in an indoors cluttered environment given by unknown obstacles, and partially known maps.