Artificial potential field based path planning for mobile robots using a virtual obstacle concept

The artificial potential field (APF) based path planning methods have a local minimum problem, which can trap mobile robots before reaching it's goal. In this study, a new concept using a virtual obstacle is proposed to escape local minimums occurred in local path planning. A virtual obstacle is located around local minimums to repel a mobile robot from local minimums. A sensor based discrete modeling method is also proposed for modeling of the mobile robot with range sensors. This modeling method is adaptable for a real-time path planning because it provides lower complexity.