A THEORETICAL PATH COMPUTATION MODEL FOR RECTANGULAR RIGID-BODIES ENTERING AN ENTRANCE

Abstract. Path planning is to calculate a path for users from the departure location to the destination by considering some conditions, such as travel distance, time, or safety. Although users are generally rigid-bodies with certain dimensions (e.g., cars, wheelchair), they are abstracted as a 0D point in current path planning. Such practice can simplify and accelerate path planning in environments where the spaces are large enough to ignore the users’ dimensions. However, in many cases, the dimension of a user for path planning cannot be ignored, especially in some spaces where safety is critical, such as garage entrances. To help rigid-bodies safely enter into entrances, this paper presents a theoretical path computation model, in which users are rectangular rigid-bodies (RRB). This theoretical model can help the RRB-like users (e.g., robots, unmanned vehicles) to determine if an entrance is passable and further how to enter an entrance safely.