A potential field method for robot motion planning in unknown environments

Abstract

Based on a potential field function, a method is proposed to navigate a mobile robot from a given initial configuration to a desired final configuration in an unknown environment filled with obstacles. To determine its configuration accurately, the robot is equipped with an electronic compass and two optical encoders for dead‐reckoning, an ultrasonic module for self‐localization, and a time‐of‐flight (TOF) laser range finder for environment recognition. From the readings of sensors at every sampling instant, the proposed method will determine the heading direction of the robot. Then the robot is driven to an intermediate configuration along the heading direction. The navigation procedure will be iterated until a collision‐free path between the initial and the final configurations is found. To show the feasibility and validity of the proposed method, simulation and experimental results are included for illustration.