Tube RRT*: Efficient Homotopic Path Planning for Swarm Robotics Passing-Through Large-Scale Obstacle Environments

Abstract: Recently, the concept of homotopic trajectory planning has emerged as a novel solution to navigation in large-scale obstacle environments for swarm robotics, offering a wide ranging of applications. However, it lacks an efficient homotopic path planning method in large-scale obstacle environments. This paper introduces Tube RRT*, an innovative homotopic path planning method that builds upon and improves the Rapidly-exploring Random Tree (RRT) algorithm. Tube RRT* is specifically designed to generate homotopic paths, strategically considering gap volume and path length to mitigate swarm congestion and ensure agile navigation. Through comprehensive simulations and experiments, the effectiveness of Tube RRT* is validated.