Path planning based on sliding window and variant A* algorithm for quadruped robot

In order to improve the adaptability of the quadruped robot in complex environments,a path planning method based on sliding window and variant A* algorithm for quadruped robot is presented. To improve the path planning efficiency and robot security,an incremental A* search algorithm( IA*) and the A* algorithm having obstacle grids extending( EA*) are proposed respectively. The IA* algorithm firstly searches an optimal path based on A* algorithm,then a new route from the current path to the new goal projection is added to generate a suboptimum route incrementally. In comparison with traditional method solving path planning problem from scratch,the IA* enables the robot to plan path more efficiently. EA* extends the obstacle by means of increasing grid g-value,which makes the route far away from the obstacle and avoids blocking the narrow passage. To navigate the robot running smoothly,a quadratic B-spline interpolation is applied to smooth the path.Simulation results illustrate that the IA* algorithm can increase the re-planning efficiency more than 5 times and demonstrate the effectiveness of the EA* algorithm.