Ellipse-based velocity obstacles for local navigation of holonomic mobile robot

The real-time navigation problem of a holonomic mobile robot in dynamic environments is addressed. The robot´s footprint and obstacles are approximated with the smallest enclosing ellipses, known as the Löwner-John ellipses. The robot avoids collisions with obstacles by selecting a translational velocity outside of the ellipse-based velocity obstacle (EBVO) described in this Letter at each time step. Furthermore, the rotational velocity of the robot is controlled to gradually change the EBVO so that the robot can efficiently reach the destination. Finally, the proposed algorithm is demonstrated through simulations.