Decision of Robot's Movement by Means of Potential Field

Abstract

In this paper a method of deciding robot's movement by means of potential field is proposed and simple simulations using it are shown. Especially two concepts, “State space for robots” and “Oval potential”, are unique.A robot which utilizes the proposed method has a potential field as what keeps informations about its surrounding situation. The field is formed in a space that represents the robot's state (state space) . And the robot's state that is a point in the space moves according to the potential distribution.The principal characteristics of this method are following.•As a robot's state is represented by a point, the decision of movement can be made simply.•And the oval potential is used for potential distribution, the robot's state moves successfully, the object is memorized by a little information and the calculation for the potential is easy.