Version 1.0, August 31, 2001, Copyright, Hugh Jack 1993-2001
Some of the potential of Spatial Planning is exposed in some of the current research. To allow the development of vision for use in the field of path planning, E.K. Wong and K.S. Fu [1986] have done some research. This research allows a path planning method to be run with three views of a work cell, and from these three views deduce the maximum filled volume. Once the information from the vision system has been interpreted to provide the basic world model, then the objects may be grown into configuration space for an arbitrary moving object. The three views of the object then may be examined from each of the three views, to determine the free path. This premise is based on the idea that if a clear path is visible in one view, then it is a clear path in three dimensional space. This technique uses oct-trees for the representation of space, thus the technique may be very efficient (depending upon the resolution of the oct-tree). This method was implemented on a VAX 11/780 to find a path for an obstacle in three space in 1 to twenty seconds (depending upon the oct-tree search depth). This had not been mated to a vision system in the cited paper.