Main Content

checkPathValidity

Check validity of planned vehicle path

Description

isValid = checkPathValidity(refPath,costmap) checks the validity of a planned vehicle path, refPath, against the vehicle costmap. Use this function to test if a path is valid within a changing environment.

A path is valid if the following conditions are true:

  • The path has at least one pose.

  • The path is collision-free and within the limits of costmap.

example

isValid = checkPathValidity(refPoses,costmap) checks the validity of a sequence of vehicle poses, refPoses, against the vehicle costmap.

Examples

collapse all

Plan a vehicle path through a parking lot by using the optimal rapidly exploring random tree (RRT*) algorithm. Check that the path is valid, and then plot the transition poses along the path.

Load a costmap of a parking lot. Plot the costmap to see the parking lot and inflated areas for the vehicle to avoid.

data = load('parkingLotCostmap.mat');
costmap = data.parkingLotCostmap;
plot(costmap)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel X, ylabel Y contains 2 objects of type image, patch. This object represents Inflated Areas.

Define start and goal poses for the vehicle as [x, y, Θ] vectors. World units for the (x,y) locations are in meters. World units for the Θ orientation angles are in degrees.

startPose = [4, 4, 90]; % [meters, meters, degrees]
goalPose = [30, 13, 0];

Use a pathPlannerRRT object to plan a path from the start pose to the goal pose.

planner = pathPlannerRRT(costmap);
refPath = plan(planner,startPose,goalPose);

Check that the path is valid.

isPathValid = checkPathValidity(refPath,costmap)
isPathValid = logical
   1

Interpolate the transition poses along the path.

transitionPoses = interpolate(refPath);

Plot the planned path and the transition poses on the costmap.

hold on
plot(refPath,'DisplayName','Planned Path')
scatter(transitionPoses(:,1),transitionPoses(:,2),[],'filled', ...
    'DisplayName','Transition Poses')
hold off

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object with xlabel X, ylabel Y contains 13 objects of type image, patch, scatter, line, polygon. These objects represent Inflated Areas, Planned Path, Transition Poses.

Input Arguments

collapse all

Planned vehicle path, specified as a driving.Path object.

Costmap used for collision checking, specified as a vehicleCostmap object.

Sequence of vehicle poses, specified as an m-by-3 matrix of [x, y, Θ] vectors. m is the number of specified poses.

x and y specify the location of the vehicle. These values must be in the same world units used by costmap.

Θ specifies the orientation angle of the vehicle in degrees.

Output Arguments

collapse all

Indicates validity of the planned vehicle path, refPath, or the sequence of vehicle poses, refPoses, returned as a logical value of 1 or 0.

A path or sequence of poses is valid (1) if the following conditions are true:

  • The path or pose sequence has at least one pose.

  • The path or pose sequence is collision-free and within the limits of costmap.

Algorithms

To check if a vehicle path is valid, the checkPathValidity function discretizes the path. Then, the function checks that the poses at the discretized points are collision-free. The threshold for a collision-free pose depends on the resolution at which checkPathValidity discretizes.

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation
Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Version History

Introduced in R2018a