Fast and continuous path planning in ground robots for aerospace exploration

The path planning problem is a computational problem which is directed to search for sequences of positions (or, equivalently, movements) that can take a vehicle from a starting point to an end point, or even allow the vehicle to pass through a predefined sequence of points. The simplest versions have the sole objective of avoiding areas where the vehicle could not physically travel or where it would sustain damages, but this almost always generates more than one valid solution. For this reason, many algorithms also deal at the very least with choosing the shortest, fastest or safest of these alternatives to adopt. In addition, a more extensive combination of factors might be wanted to be taken into account, thus entering into multi-objective path planning. This is precisely the cardinal topic of this thesis, in particular it is designed to be used by rovers for Martian exploration. In fact the planner is designed to be integrated into the system created by TASI to be deployed on a MobileRobots Seeker on their property. The objectives to be optimized considered here aim to achieve the shortest and safest path, taking into account the necessary energy consumption or solar exposure during the journey (since recharging is usually done through solar panels), and this is achieved through the MOD* lite incremental search algorithm (an enhancement of D* lite).