Local path re-planning for unforeseen obstacle avoidance by an autonomous sweeping robot

We propose an algorithm for unforeseen obstacle avoidance by an autonomous sweeping robot. Sweeping means a motion that a robot covers a 2-dimensional area. When a mobile robot finds an unforeseen obstacle, it not only has to avoid collision but also sweep whole area including around the obstacle. In the proposed algorithm, a robot determines local area where path for sweeping should be arranged according to its limited sensing ability. By connecting the paths inside and outside the local area, the robot obtains a new total path. The local path re-planning saves heavy calculation to generate whole path again at online.