English

Discrete Dubins Paths

Discrete Mathematics 2012-11-14 v1 Computational Geometry Optimization and Control

Abstract

A Dubins path is a shortest path with bounded curvature. The seminal result in non-holonomic motion planning is that (in the absence of obstacles) a Dubins path consists either from a circular arc followed by a segment followed by another arc, or from three circular arcs [Dubins, 1957]. Dubins original proof uses advanced calculus; later, Dubins result was reproved using control theory techniques [Reeds and Shepp, 1990], [Sussmann and Tang, 1991], [Boissonnat, C\'er\'ezo, and Leblond, 1994]. We introduce and study a discrete analogue of curvature-constrained motion. We show that shortest "bounded-curvature" polygonal paths have the same structure as Dubins paths. The properties of Dubins paths follow from our results as a limiting case---this gives a new, "discrete" proof of Dubins result.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1211.2365,
  title  = {Discrete Dubins Paths},
  author = {Sylvester Eriksson-Bique and David Kirkpatrick and Valentin Polishchuk},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1211.2365},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

26 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T22:36:13.103Z