iPRM Guides

This is the path planning source code of article paper entitled "An Improved Probabilistic Roadmap Planning Method for Safe Indoor Flights of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles" (https://www.mdpi.com/2504-446X/7/2/92).

Qingeng Jin, School of Remote Sensing and Information Engineering, Wuhan University, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. The use of this code, its parts and all the materials in the text; creation of derivatives and their publication; and sharing the code publically is permitted without permission. Please cite the work in all materials as: Jin, Q.; Hu, Q.; Zhao, P.; Wang, S.; Ai, M. An Improved Probabilistic Roadmap Planning Method for Safe Indoor Flights of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. Drones 2023, 7, 92. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7020092. or other appropriate citation style.

Contents

• Contents
• 1 File Format and Folder Structure
• 2 Experiment Params
  • 2.1 Path Planning Params
  • 2.2 Experiment Params
  • 2.3 Other Params
• 3 How to Run the Experiments
  • 3.1 Map Data Preparation
  • 3.2 Demo Only
    • 3.2.1 Demo: Basic PRM
    • 3.2.2 Demo: iPRM
    • 3.2.3 Demo: Planning in Multilayer Map
  • 3.3 Experimental Analysis
    • 3.3.1 Automatically Create Node Files
    • 3.3.2 Analysis: Basic PRM
    • 3.3.3 Analysis: Connection Distance
    • 3.3.4 Analysis: iPRM
• 4 Output Results
  • 4.1 Basic PRM
  • 4.2 Connection Distance
  • 4.3 iPRM

1 File Format and Folder Structure

The file folder includes:

• Source data
  • Virtual binary image maps
    • ./src/map1.bmp
    • ./src/map2.bmp
  • Reduced-dimensional map
    • ./src/map_lib.bmp: a library reading room.
    • ./src/map_pkl.bmp: a underground parking lot.
  • Nodes for control
    • ./src/fixed_node/{map_name}/{node_num}_{repeat_num}.txt
  • Multilayer map demo.
    • ./src/multilayers/map_lib_l.bmp: lower layer map (Area 1 and Area 2, referred to the paper).
    • ./src/multilayers/map_lib.u.bmp: upper layer mao (Area 3).
• Execution
  • Validation
    • ./checkPath.m
    • ./distancePoints.m
    • ./feasiblePoint.m
    • ./feasiblePoint2.m
    • ./heuristic.m
    • ./historic.m
    • ./showSourceLocation.m
    • ./pathSearching.m
  • Planning
    • ./myEXPFuncBasicPRM.m
    • ./myEXPFuncConnectDis.m
    • ./myEXPFuncCollisionSmooth.m
    • ./myEXPFuncSmooth1.m
    • ./myEXPFuncSmooth2.m
    • ./myEXPFuncBasicPRMforMultiLayer.m
• Demo
  • ./my_demo_BasicPRM.m
  • ./my_demo_iPRM.m
  • ./my_demo_MultilayerMap.m
• Experiments
  • ./my_exp_CreateNodes.m
  • ./my_exp_BasicPRM.m
  • ./my_exp_ConnectDistance.m
  • ./my_exp_CollisionSmooth.m

2 Experiment Params

2.1 Path Planning Params

nodeNums: number of nodes to sample in the map. connectDis: distance within which the nodes are checked for collision. startLocation: source node where path search begins. endLocation: goal node where path search ends. safeDistance: distance within which space is regarded as occupied.

2.2 Experiment Params

map_name: choose a map from {map1, map2, map_lib, map_pkl}. node_group_num (node_group_i): different node number. nodes_repeat_num (node_repeat_i): different node distribution under same node number. cd_i: different connection distance under same nodes.

2.3 Other Params

display: whether to show planning results. save: whether to save the statistic and analysis results using Excel.

3 How to Run the Experiments

3.1 Map Data Preparation

This project contains 4 maps that are used in the paper. Users are available for using your own map by adding the map in ./src/{your-map-name}.bmp and changing the {map-name} to your map in the project. In this way, you can choose one of the following solutions:

• Use random node generation, referring to 3.2 Demo Only.
• Use ./my_exp_CreateNodes.m to automatically create nodes, referring to 3.3.1 Automatically Create Node Files.
• Create nodes by your own and add node files in ./src/fixed_nodes/{your-map-name}/{node-num}_{repeat-num}.txt.

3.2 Demo Only

3.2.1 Demo: Basic PRM

In ./my_demo_BasicPRM.m:

%% Input settings
choose_map = 4; % choose map by id{1,2,3,4}.
display = true; % {true,false} whether to show planning results. 
safeDistance = 5; % distance within which space is regarded as occupied.

Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to run the demo.

3.2.2 Demo: iPRM

In ./my_demo_iPRM.m:

%% Input settings
choose_map = 4; % choose map by id{1,2,3,4}.
display = true; % {true,false} whether to show planning results. 
display1 = true; % nodes
display11 = false; % edges
display2 = true; % update
display3 = true; % smooth
connectDistanceWeight = 0.75; % control distance within which the nodes are performed for connection. [0.1, 1.0]
safeDistance = 5; % distance within which space is regarded as occupied.

Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to run the demo.

3.2.3 Demo: Planning in Multilayer Map

in ./my_demo_MultilayerMap.m:

%% input settings
nodes_num = 3; % choose node num by id{1, 2 ,3} -> {node-num-1, node-num-2, node-num-3}
fixed_nodes_map_num = 10; % choose node distribution under node num
display = true; % {true,false} whether to show planning results. 
safeDistance = 5; % distance within which space is regarded as occupied.

Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to run the demo.

3.3 Experimental Analysis

3.3.1 Automatically Create Node Files

If users want to use your own maps and nodes, you can use ./my_exp_CreateNodes.m to automatically create node files in the project. In ./my_exp_CreateNodes.m:

map_names = {'map1','map2','map_lib','map_pkl'}; % change this to your map name
nodeNums = [10,10; 60,15; 60,20; 60,20]; % change this as the node number and its increment
startLocations = [30,40; 30,40; 75 110; 90,170]; % set the start and end location of your map
endLocations = [460,450; 480,470; 680 525; 550,530];
safeDistance = 5; % distance within which space is regarded as occupied.

Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to automatically create node files saved in ./src/fixed_nodes/{your-map-name}/{node-num}_{repeat_num}.txt, and the generation time is saved in ./result/create_nodes.txt.

3.3.2 Analysis: Basic PRM

Basic PRM is used as the control group of the paper. Params to perform a specific experiment: map_name (map_i): choose a map. {map1, map2, map_lib, map_pkl} node_group_num (node_group_i): different node number. {1, 2, 3} -> {node-num-1, node-num-2, node-num-3} nodes_repeat_num (node_repeat_i): different node distribution under same node number. {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10} cd_i: different connection distance under same nodes. [0.1, 1.0] In ./my_exp_BasicPRM.m:

for map_i = 1:size(map_names,2)
  ...
  for node_group_i = 1:nodes_group_num
    ...
    for node_repeat_i = 1:nodes_repeat_num
      ...
      for cd_i = 1:size(connectDis,2)
        ...
      end
    end
  end
end

Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to do the experiment, results are saved in ./result/basic/{map-name}_bas.xlsx.

3.3.3 Analysis: Connection Distance

Network construction and edge analysis were performed in the paper, do the experiment in ./my_exp_ConnectDistance.m. Params to perform a specific experiment are the same as 3.3.2 Analysis: Basic PRM. Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to do the experiment, results are saved in ./result/connect_distance/{map-name}_cd.xlsx.

3.3.4 Analysis: iPRM

We proposed iPRM method in the paper, do the experiment in ./my_exp_CollisionSmooth.m. Params to perform a specific experiment are the same as 3.3.2 Analysis: Basic PRM. Press 'F5' in the Editor Window to do the experiment, results are saved in ./result/collision_smooth/{map-name}_cs.xlsx.

4 Output Results

Statistic and analysis results are organized and recorded in ./result/{experiment-name}/{map-name}_{abbr}.xlsx.

4.1 Basic PRM

Table structure as follows:

exp_i	node_num	repeat_num	con dis	edge num	time					update count	length_cf	length_sm1	length_sm2	success?
					create edges	search path	get path	smooth1	smooth2

4.2 Connection Distance

Table structure as follows:

exp_i	node_num	repeat_num	connection dis	edge num			time	length	sm_length		success?
				good edge num	bad edge num	skipped edge num	create edges		smooth1	smooth2

4.3 iPRM

Table structure as follows:

exp_i	node_num	repeat_num	con dis	edge num	time					update count	length_cf	length_sm1	length_sm2	success?
					create edges	search path	get path	smooth1	smooth2