2020/10/28 by Victor Emeli, Emeli, Victor, Akansel Cosgun +1
Computer Science · Engineering · #FOS: Computer and information sciences #Guidance and Control Systems #Robotic Path Planning Algorithms #Robotics (cs.RO) #Robotics and Sensor-Based Localization
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2010.14733
openalex publication_date 2020/10/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper explores the Navigation Among Movable Obstacles (NAMO) problem and proposes joint path and push planning: which path to take and in what direction the obstacles should be pushed at, given a start and goal position. We present a planning algorithm for selecting a path and the obstacles to be pushed, where a Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT)-based heuristic is employed to calculate a minimal collision path. When it is necessary to apply a pushing force to slide an obstacle out of the way, the planners leverage means-end analysis through a dynamic physics simulation to determine the sequence of linear pushes to clear the necessary space. Simulation experiments show that our approach finds solutions in higher clutter percentages (up to 49%) compared to the straight-line push planner (37%) and RRT without pushing (18%).