In this paper, we present a novel online global reactive motion planner that synergizes the benefits of reactive control and model predictive control (MPC). By applying circular fields, the planner significantly simplifies the problem of determining control inputs for mobile robots and manipulators, making real-time MPC feasible even in complex and dynamic three-dimensional environments. This approach utilizes the performance advantages of optimal control while maintaining reactivity to environmental changes and computational efficiency. The proposed motion planner is evaluated in various simulated scenarios, including complex dynamic environments with up to 100 moving obstacles, and is compared to different state-of-the-art approaches.

The rise of autonomous driving in everyday life makes efficient and collision-free motion planning more important than ever. However, multi robot applications in highly dynamic environments still pose hard challenges for state-of-the-art motion planners. In this paper, we present a new iteration of a reactive circular fields motion planner with the focus on simultaneous control of multiple robots in robotic soccer games, which is able to operate omnidirectional robots safely and efficiently despite high measurement delays and inaccuracies. Our extension enables the definition and effective execution of complex tasks in soccer specific problems. We extensively evaluated our planner in several complex simulation environments and experimentally verified the approach in realistic scenarios on real soccer robots. Furthermore, we demonstrated the capabilities of our motion planner during the successful participation in the RoboCup 2022 and 2023.