Improved Artificial Potential Field Method for Mobile Robot Path Planning

To address the issues of unreachable target problem and local minima associated with the traditional artificial potential field method in robot path planning, three improvement strategies for such problems are proposed: distance regulation, optimization of repulsive force, and setting virtual target point. The unreachable target problem is solved by changing the gain coefficient in the planning process through the distance regulation method and removing the influence of the repulsive force after reaching a safe distance; A decay factor is used to optimize the repulsive force to solve the case where the combined force of the local minima is zero; escape from the current local minima scenario is possible through the setting of a virtual target point. Simulations of these improvements show that, analyzed by comparison with the traditional artificial potential field method, improved algorithms can effectively solve the unreachable target and local minimum problems.