Obstacle Avoidance for Groups of Mobile Robots Using Potential Field Technique

An efficient real time path planning method for groups of mobile robots in dynamic environments is introduced. Harmonic potential functions are utilized along with the panel method known in fluid mechanics. First, a complement to the traditional panel method is introduced to generate a more effective harmonic potential field for obstacle avoidance in dynamically changing environments. Second, a group of mobile robots working in an environment containing stationary and moving obstacles is considered. Each robot is assigned to move from its current position to a goal position. The group is not forced to maintain a formation during the motion. Every robot considers the other robots of the group as moving obstacles and hence the physical dimensions of the robots are also taken into account. The path of each robot is planned based on the changing position of the other robots and the position of stationary and moving obstacles. Finally, the effectiveness of the scheme is shown by modeling groups of an arbitrary number of mobile robots and the theory is validated by several computer simulations and hardware experiments.