Avoiding moving obstacles: the forbidden velocity map

Robotic obstacle avoidance in cluttered and dense environments is an important issue in robotic navigation. Over the past few years a number of techniques has been proposed to deal with safe navigation among obstacles in unknown scenarios. Unfortunately many of these methods do not consider obstacle velocities, which can rise some serious questions concerning their safety. This paper will deal with a novel approach to moving obstacle avoidance in holonomic robots. It proposes the Forbidden Velocity Map, a generalization of the Dynamic Window concept that considers obstacle and robot shape, velocity and dynamics, resulting in a safe, reactive real-time navigation algorithm that is able to deal with navigation in unpredictable and cluttered scenarios.