Path Planning for Mobile Robot at A Crossroads by Using Hydrodynamic Potential.

Abstract

This paper describes the theory and the experiment of a velocity potential approach for path planning and avoiding standing obstacles and moving obstacles for an autonomous mobile robot by the use of the hydrodynamic potential. This potential function for path planning is feasible for guiding a mobile robot to avoid arbitrarily moving obstacles and to reach the goal in real time. In this theory, a mobile robot should avoid the obstacles even when the robot is trapped in the slit narrower than the diameter of a mobile robot and formed by plural obstacles. The vortex field is introduced for resolving this difficulty. An experiment is conducted to prove the usefulness of this theory. A camera of PSD (Position Sensing Device) is installed at the top of the experimental site. The robot, the obstacles, and the landmark of a crossroads are identified by this camera. A velocity of the obstacles is estimated by proccessing the signal. The path planning is conducted with a computer, and the velocity for avoiding obstacles is sent to a mobile robot. A mobile robot succeed in avoiding the moving obstacles at a crossroads in this experimental systems.