Local Path Planning of Mobile Robot Based on Artificial Potential Field

When a mobile robot plans its local path under the environment with obstacles using the artificial potential field strategy, it may fall into the dead zone and fails to reach the target point because of the problem of local minimum point exited in the traditional method. In order to solve the problem, the left turning potential field method and virtual target point method are proposed based on artificial potential field. The left turning potential field method forces the robot to turn at the local minimum point and jump out of here; the virtual target point method is to set the virtual target point at an appropriate position when the robot is at the local minimum point. Meanwhile the robot should ignore the impact of the target point and obstacles on it, so that it can turn around and jump out of the local minimum point. Through simulation and test, it is proved that the mobile robot can bypass the local minimum point and reach the target point successfully by the designed methods.