Kuffner Research : Path Planning Software

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NEW! - available soon:

PPT : Path Planning Toolkit

I am currently developing a new tool for motion planning researchers called PPT, a collection of C++ classes useful for developing, testing, and comparing different algorithms and techniques for holonomic path planning.

Why am I doing this?

It is currently difficult to compare motion planning algorithms for the following reasons:

There exists no standard set of models or planning queries for testing.
Different algorithms are tested on different hardware platforms (CPU, memory, OS).
Researchers use different collision checking/distance computation algorithms whose calculations typically have a large impact on running time. In addition, collision-free path segments are often verified in different ways (e.g. discretized sampling, recursive bisection based on minimum distance, etc.)
Source code for implementations of known algorithms is rarely available.

By creating a set of planning algorithms, robot models, planning queries, and collision-checking/distance computation libraries, I hope to provide a standard software base for developing new motion planning algorithms.

Who can use it?

Students, educators, researchers, and anyone else with a non-profit interest in path planning techniques and algorithms. My only request is that if you add additional functionality, or create interesting models or example queries, that you contribute them back to the PPT project archive. In this way, the usefulness of the software can continue to evolve. For those interested in using this library for business or other commercial purposes, commercial licenses may be available by contacting me by phone or email.

When will it be available?

That depends on how much time I can devote to this project outside of work during the coming months. If anyone is interested in helping me, send me an email.