Robot navigation based on electrostatic field computation

• Published in: IEEE transactions on magnetics Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 1459 - 1462
• Main Authors: Pimenta, L.C.A., Fonseca, A.R., Pereira, G.A.S., Mesquita, R.C., Silva, E.J., Caminhas, W.M., Campos, M.F.M.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: New York, NY IEEE 01.04.2006; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Computation; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Electrostatic fields; Electrostatics; Exact sciences and technology; Finite element methods; Magnetism; Materials science; Mathematical analysis; Minima; Mobile robots; Motion planning; Navigation; Orbital robotics; Other topics in materials science; Path planning; Physics; Potential fields; Robot control; Robot kinematics; Robots; Shape; Trajectory; Finite element method; Proceedings; Calculus; Modelling; motion-planning; mobile robots; Finite element methods; Magnetic properties
• ISSN: 0018-9464; 1941-0069
• DOI: 10.1109/TMAG.2006.870931

This paper addresses the problem of mobile robot navigation using artificial potential fields. Many potential field based methodologies are found in the robotics literature, but most of them have problems with spurious local minima, which cause the robot to stop before reaching its target position. Although some free of local minima methodologies are found in the literature, none of them are easy to implement and generalize for complex shaped environments and robots. We propose a perfect analogy between electrostatic field computation and robot path planning. Thus, an easy solution to the problem, which is based on standard finite-element methods, can be applied with generic geometries and can even take into account the robot's orientation. To demonstrate the elegance of the proposed methodology, several experimental results with actual mobile robots are included