General Path Planning Methodology for Leader-Follower Robot Formations

This paper describes a robust algorithm for mobile robot formations based on the Voronoi Fast Marching path planning method. This is based on the propagation of a wave throughout the model of the environment, the wave expanding faster as the wave's distance from obstacles increases. This method provides smooth and safe trajectories and its computational efficiency allows us to maintain a good response time. The proposed method is based on a local-minima-free planner; it is complete and has an O(n) complexity order where n is the number of cells of the map. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm generates good trajectories.