Movement Control of Accompanying Robot Based on Artificial Potential Field Adapted to Dynamic Environments

Abstract

This paper focuses on mobile robots that can accompany a person, that is, it addresses how to control the relative position of the robot to the accompanied person according to the dynamic environment. The robot is expected to move side-by-side with the person in the normal situation, but the position in front or behind the person might be better if there are some obstacles. The shape of the artificial potential field of the accompanied person is devised to smoothly control the robot position in a unified way. Laplace potential method is also used subsidiarily to cope with extremely cluttered environments. Simulations and experiments in real space show the usefulness of the proposed method.