Problem solving path planning and path tracking in a 3 DOF hexapod robot using the RRT* algorithm with path optimization and Pose-to-Pose

Abstract

Path planning is one of the most fundamental problems that must be solved before a robot can navigate and explore autonomously. Path planning needs to be integrated with path tracking to be applied to autonomous robots. This makes path tracking also important for autonomous robot navigation which cannot be separated from path planning. There are two path planning methods, the first is search-based method, the second is sampling-based method. Both have their own advantages, but the popular and commonly used sampling-based algorithm due to its fast convergence is preferred in path planning.  The RRT* algorithm was developed. This improvement initiated a major civilization in sampling-based algorithms, namely parent node selection and rewiring in RRT. Although there has been an improvement in optimality, RRT* still doesn't provide the distance optimality value as expected, due to its character that is still adopted from RRT.  The resulting path is still suboptimal and not smooth (jagged). On the other side, Path tracking has several methods, however, these path tracking methods are difficult to apply to autonomous robots and need to be adapted to the robot used. Based on the description above, there are still problems with path planning, namely paths that are still less than optimal and convergence that is still slow.  This research will add a way to shorten the distance in the RRT* algorithm with the triangular inequality method.  Meanwhile, for path tracking, we will apply the pose-to-pose method, which follows the waypoint that has been made by path planning.