Design of Variable Potential Field for Dynamic Obstacle Avoidance of Mobile Robots
Dong Hun Kim · Journal of Institute of Control Robotics and Systems · 2021
This paper presents the design of a variable potential field for dynamic obstacle avoidance by mobile robots. In this scheme, the RPF (Repulsive Potential Field) for obstacle avoidance has a different magnitude in each direction based on the angle between a goal and an obstacle, unlike a conventional RPF in which the magnitude is the same in each direction. Conventional potential field designs for path planning use scaling parameters of the potential field as fixed values. Therefore, the local minimum problem occurs because of which the robot cannot reach its destination. This is because of the obstacle in the approach to the destination due to repulsive forces in all directions around the potential field. Similarly, studies on existing potential field designs for avoiding dynamic obstacles have used methods such as fixed obstacles by designing only the location of the dynamic obstacles in the current step. Therefore, a collision is inevitable when the dynamic obstacle moves faster than the robot. Thus, in this study, the scaling parameters of the RPF were designed using variable values depending on the locations of the obstacle and destination. In addition, a new field design was developed for obstacle avoidance considering the speeds of dynamic obstacles. The experimental results proved that a potential field could be effectively designed for avoiding dynamic obstacles and those near the destination.