Image based obstacle detection and path planning for solar powered autonomous vehicle

Mobile robots are slowly growing in number and complexity due to their applications. A mobile robot needs locomotion mechanisms that enable it to move unbounded throughout its environment. Navigation of robot in a dynamic environment is a complicated issue due to the fact that a variety of obstacles has to be detected and a collision free path must be chosen. For an autonomous robot, obstacle detection and path planning are crucial tasks for the success of the robot. In this work an image based obstacle detection and path planning system is proposed. The basic idea is to implement path planning by considering the spacing between the obstacles and comparing with a predefined threshold to estimate whether it is a traversable path.