A Path Planning Algorithm for Soccer Playing Robots Based on Repeated Modification of Bezier Polynomials

Abstract

The Bezier curvature algorithm is a path-planning algorithm for soccer robots based on repeated modification of Bezier polynomials. The robot is steered by choosing an appropriate Bezier curve that connects its current position and its destination, and the robot is made to traverse the initial section of the curve. The wheel velocities of the differentially-driven robot are computed from the curvature of that curve section. The process is repeated until the robot finally reaches its destination. The algorithm was compared to two other path-planning algorithms for soccer robots: the uni-vector field and line-circle algorithms. The algorithms were made to execute 17 test cases and their performances were compared. The test cases have different robot, ball and obstacle locations. The objective of the robot is to kick the ball towards the center of the target goal. The goal success rate, kicking accuracy and frequency of collisions were compared. The results showed that the principles behind the Bezier curvature algorithm are valid, and it performed better than the two algorithms.

Keywords: path planning, robot soccer, robot soccer simulation, collision avoidance, repeated path modification