Path Planning and Patrolling for a Team of Car-like Robots in a Campus Environment

During my tenure at the Autonomous Robotics and Multi-Robot Systems Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, I worked on a collaborative project with the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, Defence Research and Development Organisation, India, focused on autonomous patrolling and path planning for a team of car-like mobile robots. The objective was to enable the robots to patrol designated areas while ensuring that priority points within a cantonment were regularly visited and not left unattended.

The multi-robot patrolling algorithm was developed by a PhD student on the IIT Bombay team. My role was to integrate the algorithm into a ROS and Webots-based simulation framework and develop the path planning and navigation components required to execute the generated patrol targets.

My primary contribution was vehicle-aware path generation for car-like robots. I developed smooth feasible trajectories using techniques such as cubic spline interpolation while accounting for the vehicle's motion constraints. I also integrated obstacle avoidance with the path planning pipeline, enabling the robots to navigate around obstacles while continuing toward their assigned patrol points.