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This paper addresses the problem of generating coverage paths-that is, paths that pass within some sensor footprint of every point in an environment-for vehicles with Dubins motion constraints. We extend previous work that solves this coverage problem as a traveling salesman problem (TSP) by introducing a practical heuristic algorithm to reduce runtime while maintaining near-optimal path length. Furthermore, we show that generating an optimal coverage path is NP-hard by reducing from the Exact Cover problem, which provides justification for our algorithm's conversion of Dubins coverage instances to TSP instances. Extensive experiments demonstrate that the algorithm does indeed produce length paths comparable to optimal in significantly less time.
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This content will become publicly available on May 13, 2025
An Analytic Solution to the 3D CSC Dubins Path Problem
We present an analytic solution to the 3D Dubins path problem for paths composed of an initial circular arc, a straight component, and a final circular arc. These are commonly called CSC paths. By modeling the start and goal configurations of the path as the base frame and final frame of an RRPRR manipulator, we treat this as an inverse kinematics problem. The kinematic features of the 3D Dubins path are built into the constraints of our manipulator model. Furthermore, we show that the number of solutions is not constant, with up to seven valid CSC path solutions even in non-singular regions. An implementation of solution is available at https: //github.com/aabecker/dubins3D.
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- PAR ID:
- 10552108
- Publisher / Repository:
- IEEE
- Date Published:
- ISBN:
- 979-8-3503-8457-4
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 7157 to 7163
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Solid modeling Concentric tube robots Analytical models Three-dimensional displays Kinematics Manipulators Turning
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Location:
- Yokohama, Japan
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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