Robot Path Planning Based on Freeman Direction Chain Code

Path planning is one of the key technologies for robots to achieve autonomous movement, which is critical to realize intelligent operation. When facing complex environment, in order to plan the path as soon as possible, we propose a Freeman direction chain code path planning (FDCC-PP) algorithm for single and multi-robot systems. The FDCC-PP algorithm consists of two processes. The first process is map processing, in which the Freeman direction chain code is adopted to extract information about the position and direction of the obstacles in the map. The second process of the FDCC- PP algorithm is path planning, which includes moving toward the target point in free space and making a fast detour according to the Freeman direction chain code near the obstacle. In addition, in multi-robot path planning, we introduce the grid- dominant principle to handle collisions when the robots move along their planned paths. The comparison with other algorithms shows that the introduction of Freeman direction chain code can reduce the search redundancy in space and shorten the path planning time without sacrificing the safety of the robot, which makes fast path planning possible in complex environment.