Behavior fusion via free-space force shaping

Abstract

The Agoraphilic algorithm is a reactive local navigation technique based on the potential fields methodology. The algorithm employs attractive, virtual forces generated by the surrounding free-space. These attractive forces effectively drive the robot toward the areas of greatest free space, while a fuzzy weighting function is applied to add bias to the free-space toward the goal location. The ability to focus the forces in such a way is utilized for behavior based control. The force shaping property can be exploited to create a number of primitive behaviors and provide an alternative behavior fusion technique.