Fast path planning available for moving obstacle avoidance by use of Laplace potential

Describes the theory and an experiment for a fast path planning method that is available for moving obstacle avoidance for an autonomous mobile robot by the use of the Laplace potential. This new navigation function for path planning is feasible to guide, in real time, a mobile robot avoiding arbitrarily moving obstacles and reaching the goal. The experiment is conducted to verify the effectiveness of the navigation function in obstacle avoidance in the real world. The experimental systems are composed of a position sensing camera, a mobile robot and a computer for processing the position signal and for controlling the velocity vector of the robot. Three examples are presented; firstly the avoidance of a standing obstacle, secondly the avoidance of a moving obstacle in parallel lines-bounded space, and thirdly the avoidance of one moving obstacle and another standing obstacle. The robot can reach the goal after successfully avoiding the obstacles in all cases.