Levy Flight Sampling for Narrow Passage Path Planning
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional path planning methods struggle in narrow passage scenarios due to challenges in obtaining sample points in constrained spaces and improving sample density, especially in environments with high uncertainty and high-dimensional maps.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for narrow passage path sampling based on levy flight, utilizing a levy flight mechanism to identify samples, which includes generating random configurations, employing a collision detection technique, and using a levy flight bridge sampler to ensure sampling points are within free spaces.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If standard path planning methods (PRM, RRT) are used, then they are efficient for environments with high uncertainty and high-dimensional maps, but they are not efficient in narrow passage scenarios
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by using Levy flight sampling to increase sample density specifically in narrow passage regions while maintaining standard sampling in other areas. The Levy flight mechanism generates samples with heavier tails, creating clusters of points in constrained spaces where they are most needed, rather than uniform distribution throughout the entire configuration space.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the sampling parameter distribution from uniform to Levy flight distribution. This parameter change transforms the sampling strategy by using a probability distribution with heavier tails, which naturally produces clusters of samples in certain regions, effectively targeting narrow passages without requiring explicit knowledge of their locations.
2Ease of manufacture
If random uniform sampling is used, then it is simple to implement, but it fails to obtain sufficient sample points in narrow passages with relatively lesser free space area
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the sampling parameter from uniform distribution to Levy flight distribution. This transformation maintains the simplicity of random sampling while fundamentally altering the spatial distribution characteristics, producing clustered samples that naturally concentrate in narrow passage regions through the heavy-tailed probability distribution.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent substitutes the mechanical uniform sampling approach with a Levy flight-based sampling mechanism. Instead of systematically or uniformly distributing samples, the system uses a probabilistic mechanism with heavy tails that naturally produces the desired clustering effect in constrained spaces.
3Reliability
If sample density is increased in narrow passages, then path planning effectiveness is improved, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses Levy flight parameter distribution to achieve non-uniform sample density. The heavy-tailed probability distribution naturally creates clusters in certain regions without requiring complex adaptive algorithms, achieving both increased local density and computational efficiency through a simple parameter change.
Solution Approach 2:
The Levy flight sampling mechanism is self-organizing and automatically concentrates samples in narrow passage regions based on the probability distribution properties, without requiring external control or complex computational adjustments. The system serves itself by using the inherent properties of Levy flight to achieve effective sampling.
Data Source
AI summary
Method and system for narrow passage path sampling based on levy flight is disclosed. The disclosed technique is an improvisation of Random Walk to Surface (RWS), wherein, instead of performing a random walk, the disclosed technique utilizes levy flight mechanism to identify samples in narrow passages (on the obstacle boundaries). The disclosed technique for identification of narrow passages sampling points in the narrow passage is based on several techniques that include random uniform sampling technique, a levy flight function (step size) and a collision detection technique. Moreover, in addition to identification of narrow passages sampling points, the disclosed technique also performs an additional check to ensure that the identified narrow passages sampling points are present in the narrow passage based on a levy flight bridge sampler technique.