Hybrid of global path planning and local navigation implemented on a mobile robot in indoor environment

A global path planner is good in producing a optimized path, but poor in reacting to unknown obstacles. In contrast, a local/reactive navigation method works well in dynamic and initially unknown environment, but is inefficient especially in a complex environment. A hybrid navigation method is proposed in this paper. The method combines the distance transform path planner and the potential field navigation method. The suggested method has the combining advantages of the above two combining methods, at the same time eliminating some of their weaknesses.