Reactive exploration through following isolines in a potential field

In this paper we propose a control law aimed at tracing level curves (isolines) in a scalar potential field. An exploration agent governed by such a law can map simply connected regions in space where the potential field exceeds a predefined threshold. The distinguishing feature of our control is that it does not rely on higher order characteristics of the field such as the gradient at a point or the curvature of the isolines, in contrast with these parameters appearing as inputs in other proposed control laws [1], [2]. Furthermore, we establish relationships between the performance of our control law and the geometry of the isoline and show results from implementing the algorithm in both a simulated environment and a testbed.