Trajectory generation and control for four wheeled omnidirectional vehicles

This paper describes an algorithm to calculate near-optimal minimum time trajectories for four wheeled omnidirectional vehicles, which can be used as part of a high-level path planner. The algorithm is based on a relaxed optimal control problem. It takes limited friction and vehicle dynamics into account, as encountered in high-performance omnidirectional vehicles. The low computational complexity makes the application in real-time feasible. An implementation of the algorithm on a real vehicle is presented and discussed.