Robot Motion Planning—Home Work 1

 

Solution to Q2 >>

 

Q 1)   Download a software package, develop your own, use one that you have to draw some obstacles, selects two points, and draws a line between them.

 

         I have developed my own software with a graphical user interface using MATLAB-GUIDE.  The purpose of the software is to create a graphical user interface where the user can draw some obstacles, select two points and the software connects them.

         The features of the software are as follows:

· Obstacles are grouped into two types: circles and polygons. The user has an option of choosing the number of edges of the polygon obstacle (minimum 3).  NOTE: Any obstacle of irregular shape can be approximated to a polygon of ‘n’ edges.

· In order to draw obstacles, the user has to choose the radio button for the type of obstacle first and then has to click on “Draw Obstacle” button. Then, for a circular obstacle, the user has to click on two points in the drawing space. The first point corresponds to the centre of the circle and the second point is a circumferential point. For a polygon obstacle, the user has to type in the number of edges and then click on the same number of points in the drawing space.

· The software displays a “NOTE” on the top of the screen to keep the user informed of what he has to do after clicking on the “Draw Obstacle” button.  It also displays an error message in case the number of edges for the polygon is anything less than 3.

· In order to select the start and goal points, the user has two options: one is to click on either of the radio buttons and then click inside the drawing space; the other is to type in the x&y coordinates of the start and goal points. The user cannot click to select the start/goal point as well as type in the coordinates. The software disables out the other alternative so that the user cannot do it. Meanwhile, you can select a start point and type in the coordinates of a goal point and vice versa. NOTE: The drawing space has a scale of 10 units in both x and y direction.  So, the start and goal points have to be scaled accordingly when typed in.

· While selecting start and goal points, the user has to click within the drawing space and in case the user clicks outside, a “NOTE” on top of the screen will inform the user to select a point within.

· Finally, in order to connect the two points, the user has to click on “Start —> Goal” button. A line is generated that connects the two points. NOTE: The line is not the planned path, rather it is just a straight line connecting the two points. It may cross the obstacles in between.

        

         The final image of a sample software execution is available here. [Click to open]

 

         The movie of the sample software execution is available here.

 

         The GUI developed using MATLAB is available here.