Curve fitting approach to motion planning of nonholonomic chained systems

In this study a simple general motion planning approach for nonholonomic mechanical systems of chained form is proposed, in which the intricate motion planning problem (steering the system from an initial state to a final state) is converted to a simple curve fitting problem (satisfying a set of end-point conditions). By means of this approach, other geometric constraints can be easily handled, while the control inputs can be derived directly from the smooth path planned. For verifying the effectiveness of the proposed approach, a number of simulations are conducted with respect to a three-input firetruck (two-chain system).