Symbolic computation for mobile robot path planning

Motion planning for mobile robots is an arduous task. Among the various methods that have been proposed for the solution of this problem in its open loop version is the Lafferriere–Sussmann method, which is based on differential geometry and employs piecewise constant inputs. This paper gives a succinct description of the method and of a freely available software tool, called the Lie Algebraic Motion Planner—LAMP and written in Mathematica™, which automates motion planning based on this technique.