Abstract
Path design is one of the bases of autonomous control of mobile robots. Smoothness is necessary for the path from the viewpoint of dynamic robot motion. Direction of the robot on the path is important from the viewpoint of its interaction with its environment. So not only points through which the path goes, but also a tangent at each point are preferable for specifyng the path in a space because most of wheel-type mobile mechanisms cannot control their direction independently from their position on the path.
In order to satisfy these conditions a path design using B-spline curves is presented. which has a continuous 2 nd derivative, that is, a continuous curvature, and which passes through given points with a tangent specified at each point. To control a mobile robot to move along the designed curve an algorithm is presented, which decides speed pattern for a two-wheel-driven-type mobile mechanism with a minimum travel time. Feasibility of using the designed spline curve for trajectory control is demonstrated using an experimental hardware robot with two wheels driven independently.
