A hybrid feedback controller for car-like robots - combining reactive obstacle avoidance and global replanning

This paper presents a hybrid feedback controller for path control of autonomous mobile robots. The controller combines reactive obstacle avoidance with global path replanning, enabling collision-free navigation along a preplanned path. Avoidance of local obstacles is accomplished by adjusting the vehicle’s lateral deviation from the path trajectory reactively. Global path replanning is performed to circumvent obstacles which cannot be avoided locally. In contrast to common approaches, this is done by searching an optimal path returning to the initial trajectory beyond the obstacle. Following the description of the hybrid feedback controller, experimental results will demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach.