A path-planner for mobile robots of generic shape with multilayered cellular automata

In this paper we present a Path-Planning Algorithm for a non-holonomic mobile robot. The robot we considered has to move using smoothed trajectories, without stopping and turning in place, and with a minimum steering radius. We have studied an algorithm based on a directional (anisotropic) propagation of attracting potential values on a Multilayered Cellular Automata model. The algorithm finds all the optimal collision-free trajectories following the minimum valley of a 3D potential hypersurface embedded in a 4D space, built respecting the imposed constraints. Our approach turn out to be distributed and reactive to environmental dynamics. It is also flexible, because it is applicable on a wide class of vehicles with generic shapes and with different kinematics