Path Planning with a Lazy Significant Edge Algorithm (LSEA)

Probabilistic methods have been proven to be effective for robotic path planning in a geometrically complex environment. In this paper, we propose a novel approach, which utilizes a specialized roadmap expansion phase, to improve lazy probabilistic path planning. This expansion phase analyses roadmap connectivity information to bias sampling towards objects in the workspace that have not yet been navigated by the robot. A new method to reduce the number of samples required to navigate narrow passages is also proposed and tested. Experimental results show that the new algorithm is more efficient than the traditional path planning methodologies. It was able to generate solutions for a variety of path planning problems faster, using fewer samples to arrive at a valid solution.