clearance

Minimum clearance of path

Syntax

clearance(pathMetricsObj)

clearance(pathMetricsObj,'Type','states')

Description

clearance(pathMetricsObj) returns the minimum clearance of the path. Clearance is measured as the minimum distance between grid cell centers of states on the path and obstacles in the specified map environment.

Note

The computed clearance is accurate up to sqrt(2) times grid map cell size.

clearance(pathMetricsObj,'Type','states') returns the set of minimum distances for each state of the path, in the form of an n-by-1 vector, where n is the number of states.

Examples

Compute Path Metrics

Compute smoothness, clearance, and validity of a planned path based on a set of poses and the associated map environment.

Load and Assign Map to State Validator

Create an occupancy map from an example map and set the map resolution.

load exampleMaps.mat; % simpleMap
mapResolution = 1; % cells/meter
map = occupancyMap(simpleMap,mapResolution);

Create a Dubins state space.

statespace = stateSpaceDubins;

Create a state validator based on occupancy map to store the parameters and states in the Dubins state space.

statevalidator = validatorOccupancyMap(statespace);

Assign the map to the validator.

statevalidator.Map = map;

Set the validation distance for the validator.

statevalidator.ValidationDistance = 0.01;

Update the state space bounds to be the same as the map limits.

statespace.StateBounds = [map.XWorldLimits;map.YWorldLimits;[-pi pi]];

Plan Path

Create an RRT* path planner and allow further optimization.

planner = plannerRRTStar(statespace,statevalidator);
planner.ContinueAfterGoalReached = true;

Reduce the maximum number of iterations and increase the maximum connection distance.

planner.MaxIterations = 2500;
planner.MaxConnectionDistance = 0.3;

Define start and goal states for the path planner as [x, y, theta] vectors. x and y are the Cartesian coordinates, and theta is the orientation angle.

start = [2.5, 2.5, 0]; % [meters, meters, radians]
goal = [22.5, 8.75, 0];

Plan a path from the start state to the goal state. The plan function returns a navPath object.

rng(100,'twister') % repeatable result
[path,solutionInfo] = plan(planner,start,goal);

Compute and Visualize Path Metrics

Create a path metrics object.

pathMetricsObj = pathmetrics(path,statevalidator);

Check path validity. The result is 1 (true) if the planned path is obstacle free. 0 (false) indicates an invalid path.

isPathValid(pathMetricsObj)

ans = logical
   1

Calculate the minimum clearance of the path.

clearance(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
1.4142

Evaluate the smoothness of the path. Values close to 0 indicate a smoother path. Straight-line paths return a value of 0.

smoothness(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
1.7318

Visualize the minimum clearance of the path.

show(pathMetricsObj)
legend('Planned Path','Minimum Clearance')

Vehicle Path Planning and Metrics Computation in a 2-D Costmap Environment

Plan a vehicle path through a parking lot using the RRT* algorithm. Compute and visualize the smoothness, clearance, and validity of the planned path.

Load and Assign Map to State Validator

Load a costmap of a parking lot. Plot the costmap to see the parking lot and the inflated areas that the vehicle should avoid.

load parkingLotCostmap.mat;
costmap = parkingLotCostmap;
plot(costmap)
xlabel('X (meters)')
ylabel('Y (meters)')

Create a stateSpaceDubins object and increase the minimum turing radius to 4 meters.

statespace = stateSpaceDubins;
statespace.MinTurningRadius = 4; % meters

Create a validatorVehicleCostmap object using the created state space.

statevalidator = validatorVehicleCostmap(statespace);

Assign the parking lot costmap to the state validator object.

statevalidator.Map = costmap;

Plan Path

Define start and goal poses for the vehicle as [x, y, Θ] vectors. World units for the (x,y) locations are in meters. World units for the orientation angles Θ are in degrees.

startPose = [5, 5, 90]; % [meters, meters, degrees]
goalPose = [40, 38, 180]; % [meters, meters, degrees]

Use a pathPlannerRRT (Automated Driving Toolbox) object and the plan (Automated Driving Toolbox) function to plan the vehicle path from the start pose to the goal pose.

planner = pathPlannerRRT(costmap);
refPath = plan(planner,startPose,goalPose);

Interpolate along the path at every one meter. Convert the orientation angles from degrees to radians.

poses = zeros(size(refPath.PathSegments,2)+1,3);
poses(1,:) = refPath.StartPose;
for i = 1:size(refPath.PathSegments,2) 
    poses(i+1,:) = refPath.PathSegments(i).GoalPose; 
end
poses(:,3) = deg2rad(poses(:,3));

Create a navPath object using the Dubins state space object and the states specified by poses.

path = navPath(statespace,poses);

Compute and Visualize Path Metrics

Create a pathmetrics object.

pathMetricsObj = pathmetrics(path,statevalidator);

Check path validity. The result is 1 (true) if the planned path is obstacle free. 0 (false) indicates an invalid path.

isPathValid(pathMetricsObj)

ans = logical
   1

Compute and visualize the minimum clearance of the path.

clearance(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
0.5000

show(pathMetricsObj)
legend('Inflated Areas','Planned Path','Minimum Clearance')
xlabel('X (meters)')
ylabel('Y (meters)')

Compute and visualize the smoothness of the path. Values close to 0 indicate a smoother path. Straight-line paths return a value of 0.

smoothness(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
0.0842

show(pathMetricsObj,'Metrics',{'Smoothness'})
legend('Inflated Areas','Path Smoothness')
xlabel('X (meters)')
ylabel('Y (meters)')

Visualize the clearance for each state of the path.

show(pathMetricsObj,'Metrics',{'StatesClearance'})
legend('Inflated Areas','Planned Path','Clearance of Path States')
xlabel('X (meters)')
ylabel('Y (meters)')

Path Planning and Metrics Computation in 3-D Environment

Plan a path through a city block using the RRT algorithm. Compute and visualize the smoothness, clearance, and validity of the planned path.

Load and Assign Map to State Validator

Load a 3-D occupancy map of a city block into the workspace. Specify the threshold to consider cells as obstacle-free.

mapData = load("dMapCityBlock.mat");
omap = mapData.omap;
omap.FreeThreshold = 0.5;

Inflate the occupancy map to add a buffer zone for safe operation around the obstacles.

inflate(omap,1)

Create an SE(3) state space object with bounds for state variables.

ss = stateSpaceSE3([0 220;0 220;0 100;inf inf;inf inf;inf inf;inf inf]);

Create a 3-D occupancy map state validator using the created state space. Assign the occupancy map to the state validator object. Specify the sampling distance interval.

sv = validatorOccupancyMap3D(ss, ...
     Map = omap, ...
     ValidationDistance = 0.1);

Plan Path

Create a RRT path planner with increased maximum connection distance and reduced maximum number of iterations. Specify a custom goal function that determines that a path reaches the goal if the Euclidean distance to the target is below a threshold of 1 meter.

planner = plannerRRT(ss,sv, ...
          MaxConnectionDistance = 50, ...
          MaxIterations = 1000, ...
          GoalReachedFcn = @(~,s,g)(norm(s(1:3)-g(1:3))<1), ...
          GoalBias = 0.1);

Specify start and goal poses.

start = [50 180 25 0.7 0.2 0 0.1];
goal = [150 33 35 0.3 0 0.1 0.6];

Configure the random number generator for repeatable result.

rng(1,"twister")

Plan the path.

[pthObj,solnInfo] = plan(planner,start,goal);

Compute and Visualize Path Metrics

Create a path metrics object.

pathMetricsObj = pathmetrics(pthObj,sv);

Check path validity. The result is 1 (true) if the planned path is obstacle free. 0 (false) indicates an invalid path.

isPathValid(pathMetricsObj)

ans = logical
   1

Calculate the minimum clearance of the path.

clearance(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
10

Evaluate the smoothness of the path. Values close to 0 indicate a smoother path. Straight-line paths return a value of 0.

smoothness(pathMetricsObj)

ans = 
0.0011

Visualize the minimum clearance of the path.

show(pathMetricsObj)
axis equal
view([100 75])
hold on
% Start state
scatter3(start(1,1),start(1,2),start(1,3),"g","filled")
% Goal state
scatter3(goal(1,1),goal(1,2),goal(1,3),"r","filled")
% Path
plot3(pthObj.States(:,1),pthObj.States(:,2),pthObj.States(:,3), ...
      "r-",LineWidth=2)

Input Arguments

pathMetricsObj — Information for path metrics

pathmetrics object

Information for path metrics, specified as a pathmetrics object.

Version History

Introduced in R2019b