Light Reflection-Guided RRT$^{*}$: Efficient Path Planning in Narrow Passages

In complex and constrained environments, robot path planning faces the dual challenges of efficiency and solution quality. This paper presents a Light Reflection Heuristic RRT<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^*$</tex-math></inline-formula> algorithm (LRH-RRT<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^*$</tex-math></inline-formula>), which generates the reference path by simulating light reflections along obstacle boundaries and adaptively adjusts the sampling distribution. A dynamic path pruning strategy is introduced to eliminate redundant nodes, and third-order Bézier curve interpolation is applied to smooth the path while satisfying the dynamic constraints of mobile robots. Experimental results demonstrate that LRH-RRT<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^*$</tex-math></inline-formula> improves planning efficiency and path quality in various narrow passage scenarios.