Sampling-based motion and symbolic action planning with geometric and differential constraints

To compute collision-free and dynamically-feasibile trajectories that satisfy high-level specifications given in a planning-domain definition language, this paper proposes to combine sampling-based motion planning with symbolic action planning. The proposed approach, Sampling-based Motion and Symbolic Action Planner (SMAP), leverages from sampling-based motion planning the underlying idea of searching for a solution trajectory by selectively sampling and exploring the continuous space of collision-free and dynamically-feasible motions. Drawing from AI, SMAP uses symbolic action planning to identify actions and regions of the continuous space that sampling-based motion planning can further explore to significantly advance the search. The planning layers interact with each-other through estimates on the utility of each action, which are computed based on information gathered during the search. Simulation experiments with dynamical models of vehicles carrying out tasks given by high-level STRIPS specifications provide promising initial validation, showing that SMAP efficiently solves challenging problems.