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Voronoi Diagrams

Voronoi diagrams are useful for robot motion planning by partitioning space around obstacles into regions closest to each obstacle. The diagram can be used to find safe paths for a robot that maximize clearance from obstacles. Specifically, the document discusses approximating polygonal obstacles as points and computing the Voronoi diagram of these points. Edges inside obstacles are removed, yielding a generalized Voronoi diagram. The robot's start and end points are connected to the closest Voronoi vertices to find an initial path, which is then optimized using an algorithm like Dijkstra's to remain equidistant between obstacles. In summary, Voronoi diagrams enable efficient robot path planning by representing obstacle influence regions and finding paths that maximize clearance.

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Sudhir Imperfect
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140 views25 pages

Voronoi Diagrams

Voronoi diagrams are useful for robot motion planning by partitioning space around obstacles into regions closest to each obstacle. The diagram can be used to find safe paths for a robot that maximize clearance from obstacles. Specifically, the document discusses approximating polygonal obstacles as points and computing the Voronoi diagram of these points. Edges inside obstacles are removed, yielding a generalized Voronoi diagram. The robot's start and end points are connected to the closest Voronoi vertices to find an initial path, which is then optimized using an algorithm like Dijkstra's to remain equidistant between obstacles. In summary, Voronoi diagrams enable efficient robot path planning by representing obstacle influence regions and finding paths that maximize clearance.

Uploaded by

Sudhir Imperfect
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Use of

Voronoi Diagrams
in
Robot Motion
Planning

Introduction

Voronoi diagrams are fundamental data structures


in computational geometry and have been used in a
wide variety of applications, in many fields, including
biology,
computer
science,
city
planning,
crystallography, and robotic motion planning,
that
require proximity information among geometric objects.

The Voronoi diagram sections off a space into


regions closest to a particular point, called a site.
Therefore, the Voronoi diagram is the collection of
hyper-planar patches that are equidistant to two sites
such that the two sites are than any other site to the
hyper-planar patch.

Laymans concept of Voronoi diagram:


Voronoi diagrams represent the region of
influence around each of a given set of sites and
obstacles. For example, if these sites represent
the locations of McDonald's restaurants, the
Voronoi diagram partitions space into cells
around each restaurant. For each person living in
a particular cell, the defining McDonald's
represents the closest place to get a Big Mac.

An Illustration of Voronoi diagrams:

Someone gives you some dots. Each dot is a


different
color.
You color in the whole of 2-D space according to
this rule:
The color of any given point equals the color of
the
nearest dot.
The borders between your different regions are a

An implementation of the relation given in the


previous slide gives us this type of 2-D Voronoi
Diagram:

Voronoi polygons = Voronoi regions


Voronoi edges (equidistant to 2 sites)
Voronoi vertices (equidistant to 3 sites)

The Basic Problem Statement of constructing a


Voronoi Diagram in 2-D is as follows:
Decompose the space into regions around each
point, such that all the points in the region around
Pi are closer to Pi than any other point in S.

INPUT
INPUT DESCRIPTION: A SET S OF POINTS P1,P2,.,Pn

VORONOI DIAGRAM SOLUTION

OUTPUT

Towards constructing a Voronoi


Diagram
Def: The dominance region of s over
t is the set of points closer to s than
t.
Example: dominance region of a point
in a 2 point set is a half-space.

Def: Voronoi region


VR(s):

Question: How to find a vertex of VR(s) ?


Various algorithms have been developed to find
the edges and vertices of Voronoi regions in a
Voronoi diagram. One such algorithm that we
came across is Front propagation / prairie fire
analogy. This is illustrated as follows :

At time t the front (fire) is a set of circles of


radius t.
Circles intersect at Voronoi edges giving us the
required regions and vertices.

Voronoi Diagram for Polygon sites

The previous slide shows the


development of Voronoi edges as we
increase the no. of sides of a
polygon.

The generation of the diagram uses


bisectors of sites as Voronoi edges,
at the same time it uses the polygon
vertices as sites and generates lines
which intersect to give the
respective Voronoi regions.

Basics of Robot Path Planning

Let A be a robot living in a 2-D or 3-D world.


Let B be a set of obstacles in this 2-D or 3-D
world.
Call a configuration LEGAL if it neither
intersects any obstacles nor self-intersects.
Given an initial configuration qstart and a
goal config qgoal, generate a continuous
path of legal
configurations between them, or report
failure if no such path exists.

Robot Path Planning Using


Generalized Voronoi Diagrams
In the general problem, one is given a twodimensional map of the complicated region in
which a robot will be operating. Such a map
includes a variety of polygonal obstacles that are
to be avoided. To determine paths along which
the robot can safely move through this
environment, one can use an approach based on
the generalized Voronoi diagram for a planar
region with specified obstacles. Once this
diagram has been constructed, he can search it
to find robot paths that pass, with maximal
clearance, around the obstacles.

This picture shows a road


map of an area with lots
of obstacles shown by the
area enclosed by red
edges each of which can
be represented by a
convex or concave
polygonal obstacle.
The Method
To find the generalized Voronoi diagram for this
collection of polygons, one can either compute the
diagram exactly or use an approximation based on
the simpler problem of computing the Voronoi
diagram for a set of discrete points. The latter
method is explained here.
First, approximate the boundaries of the polygonal
obstacles with the large number of points that

the original polygon into small


segments.

The points that approximate the polygonal


obstacles.

Second, compute the Voronoi diagram for this collection


of approximating points. Once this complicated Voronoi
diagram is constructed, eliminate those Voronoi edges
which have one or both endpoints lying inside any of the
obstacles. The remaining Voronoi edges form a good
approximation of the generalized Voronoi diagram for the
original obstacles in the map.

The Voronoi diagram


for all of the points
generated
in
the
approximation.

The Voronoi diagram after the elimination step.

In this Voronoi diagram, locate the robot's starting and


stopping points and then compute the Voronoi vertices
which are closest to these two points. Use straight lines
to connect the robot's starting and stopping points to
these closest vertices. Special consideration is given to
those situations in which one or both of the connecting
straight lines pass through an obstacle.
Once the starting and stopping vertices on the Voronoi
diagram have been determined; can implement a
standard search, such as Dijkstra's Algorithm, to find a
"best" path which is a subset of the Voronoi diagram and
which connects the starting and stopping vertices. This
path can then be expanded to a path between the robot's
original starting and stopping points. The method
generates a route that for the most part remains
equidistant between the obstacles closest to the robot
and gives the robot a relatively safe path along which to
travel.

A sample path chosen along the Voronoi diagram by the


search algorithm with the blue line showing the bots
path.

For a better understanding of the


algorithm explained in the previous
2-3 slides please refer to the
following Java applet:
http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~pblae
r/projects/path_planner/applet.shtm
l

Few illustrations on Robot Motion


Planning using Voronoi Diagrams

Conclusion
The Voronoi diagrams are still open for
research as its utilities are enormous.
Voronoi diagrams have been merged
with other algos for motion planning
obstacles whose position is not defined
or when obstacles are moving.
This slide has just incorporated a brief
overview of the methods employed in
this field.

Acknowledgements

http://groups.csail.mit.edu/graphics/
classes/6.838/S98/meetings/m25/m2
5.html

http://www.cs.columbia.edu/~pblaer/
projects/path_planner/

www.research.ibm.com/da/images/vo
ronoi.gif

Submitted by:
Naresh

Kumar Soni

Kaustubh
Vinod

Gururaj

Vishwakarma

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