Optimal control for Wheeled Mobile Vehicles based on Cell Mapping techniques

The aim of this paper has been to integrate the kinematics and dynamic spaces in only one mathematical model, suitable to employ the cell-mapping technique in order to obtain the minimum-time solution to the optimal motion planning of a wheeled mobile vehicle. Through transformation of the cell-to-cell transitions the time spent in the knowledge of the vehicle dynamics and environment has been notably reduced. Four state variables have been considered: the velocity of the vehicle, X and Y Cartesian coordinates and the orientation of the vehicle. Also, two different control actions can act on the vehicle: the traction torque used for speeding up/braking the vehicle and the steering angle. The results show the applicability of the proposed algorithm in environments with presence of obstacles.