An analytically tractable potential field model of free space and its application in obstacle avoidance

Jen Hui Chuang, Narendra Ahuja

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

An analytically tractable potential field model of free space is presented in this paper. The model assumes that the border of every two-dimensional (2-D) region is uniformly charged. It is shown that the potential and the resulting repulsion (force and torque) between polygonal regions can be calculated in closed form. By using the Newtonian potential function, collision avoidance between object and obstacle thus modeled is guaranteed in a path planning problem. A local planner is developed for finding object paths going through narrow areas of free space where the obstacle avoidance is most important. Simulation results show that not only does individual object configuration of a path obtained with the proposed approach avoid obstacles effectively, the configurations also connect smoothly into a path.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)729-736
Number of pages8
JournalIEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Part B: Cybernetics
Volume28
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1998

Keywords

  • Artificial potential field
  • Free-space representation
  • Obstacle avoidance
  • Path planning

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Software
  • Information Systems
  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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