Application of Potential Field Method for Path Planning of Wheeled Mobile Robots

In this paper, path planning of wheeled mobile robots is investigated in presence of environmental obstacles based on potential field method. To do this, nonlinear dynamic equations of the mobile robot are derived with the respect of its nonholonomic constraints. To avoid the obstacles during the robot’s motion, repulsive potential functions are used. By implementation of potential field method, the point-to-point motion of the robot is formulated as a set of differential equations which is solved numerically. To investigate the applicability of the proposed method, the path planning of the wheeled mobile robot is simulated in obstructed environment and the results demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed method.