A Comparison of Path Planning Algorithms for Omni-Directional Robots in Dynamic Environments

The scope of this paper is to analyze and compare three path planning methods for omni-directional robots, which are based on a) the bug algorithm, b) the potential fields algorithm, and c) the A* algorithm for minimum cost path with multiresolution grids. The approaches are compared in terms of computational costs and the resulting path lengths. Results obtained indicate that the bug algorithm is a suitable choice for this type of application as its computational cost is lower than that of the other methods. Furthermore, minor modifications of the standard bug algorithm, such as the tangent following modification, allow the path planner to handle well the situations encountered in typical multi-robot environments