Restricted Orientation Dubins Path with Application to Sailboats

Abstract

This letter develops a geometrical construction of the shortest Dubins path in a discontinuous orientation-restricted environment. The method proposed here builds the shortest path from one pose to the other while avoiding a no-go zone in terms of orientation, and being constrained to move forward. Finally, an application to autonomous sailboats is then provided to validate the feasibility of the planned shortest path in a position keeping scenario.