Weighted virtual tangential vector algorithm for local path planning of mobile robots

A real‐time path generation method for a mobile robot is newly proposed based on the virtual tangential vector (VTV). The VTV is for imposing a feature to drive a robot along with the tangential direction to a circular obstacle virtually generated in real‐time. Subjected to multiple obstacles, a weighted resultant vector of all the VTVs, so‐called weighted VTV (WVTV), is defined. Together with the conventional objectives such as the goal attractive vector and the obstacle repulsive vector, the WVTV is included in a multi‐objective optimisation framework. Significant performance enhancements are demonstrated by simulations for complicated unknown environments.