Path Planning in the Configuration Space of Manipulator Using Potential Field with Information of Pseudo-distance.

Path planning in the configuration space of robot manipulator is vital for collision avoidance. Potential field approach has been tried as a useful method for planning the path in the configuration space. But the artificial potential field is known to have a local minimum problem. And the electrostatic potential field has a problem of so called wrap-up problem. This paper proposes a new potential field that shows an information of pseudo-distance from the goal in the configuration space and presents a path planning method. This method needs only a simple and easy algorithm and gives almost shortest path to the goal. This method can avoide the problems of the conventional potential fields. This paper also clears the characteristics of the proposed potential field, discusses path planning methods and shows some examples of path planning in 3 and 4 dimensional space.