On generating continuous-curvature paths for line following problem with curvature and sharpness constraints

The main contribution of the paper is to provide a method to generate continuous curvature paths in order to converge to a line, based on combinations of clothoids with line segments and circular arcs. Different kinds of continuous curvature paths have been defined in order to solve problems with different complexity. The type of paths that we have generated get the benefits of higher comfort and safety. Generated paths take into account lower and upper bounds of sharpness and curvature simultaneously, while it is not the case of other continuous curvature paths such as Elementary and BiElementary paths. Wheeled mobile robots following a path with continuous curvature may also get benefit on wheels slippage reduction and low odometry errors, since transitions are softer with constant curvature rates.