Optimal motion planning of differential-drive mobile robots based on trapezoidal collocation method

This study focuses on optimal motion planning for nonholonomic constraints mobile robot. We formulate the dynamics model of a differential-drive mobile robot by using Lagrangian mechanics, where the nonholonomic constraints are accurately described through differential equations. The optimal motion planning of the system is constructed as an optimal control problem which is then converted to a nonlinear programming problem by introducing trapezoidal collocation method, and the formulated nonlinear programming is solved by interior-point method. Compared with the prevailing methods in the field of motion planning, our proposed method can handle different kinds of path constraints, terminal conditions and collision-avoidance requirements. Simulation results indicate that the proposed approach can efficiently deal with various user-specified requirements with advantage of high computing efficiency. (paper)