A probability-based approach to model-based path planning

By capitalizing on the known properties of harmonic potential functions this work develops a new approach to probability-based path planning that is intuitive, free from local traps (local minima) and computationally less complex than many existing methods. Although the approach presented here is based on the hill-climbing method, it is still able to guarantee goal attainment. Furthermore the algorithm presented here is able to handle arbitrary-shaped geometries and does not require any geometrical or topological approximation at the environment representation level