AbstractThis article introduces and draws a comparison on B‐splines and clothoids for generating fine‐grained, smooth path specifications as applied to mobile robot path planning. At one level, a sequence of objective points that the robot must attain to avoid obstacles and to progress toward its goal are supplied by a coarse path planner. Using B‐spline and clothoid curves, these objective points are converted into a path of finer detail, as requisite to a robot driving controller/tracker. Through experimental results with the Navlabll, a mobile robot vehicle at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), we differentiate the advantages of this approach over conventional poly‐line fit/round corner used to date. © 2995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.