TopoPlan: a topological path planner for real time human navigation under floor and ceiling constraints

International audienceIn this article, we present TopoPlan, a topological planner dedicated to real-time path planning and motion adaptation to floor and ceiling constraints inside static environments. This planner analyzes 3D databases in order to automatically compute the environment topology and precisely identify environmental constraints. Based on this analysis, two motion control processes are proposed: an on the fly trajectory optimization and footprint generation process that correctly handles climbing of complex staircases, and a reactive ceiling adaptation process that handles beam avoidance and motion adaptation to irregular floors and ceilings. We further show that the computational cost of those processes is compatible with the animation of about 100 virtual humans in real-time on a standard PC configuratio