Subplanner Algorithm to Escape from Local Minima for Artificial Potential Function Based Robotic Path Planning

This paper proposes a subplanner algorithm, which will be referred to as attractive force rotation and restoration, to compensate the local minima problem under the artificial potential based planner. The key role of the proposed subplanner is to build a navigating path for escaping from the local minima by rotating and restoring the attractive force. A mobile manipulator was adopted as our robotic application to substantiate the capability of the proposed subplanner under various simulation scenarios in which the mobile manipulator finds a path to a target object without collision against stationary/moving obstacles. The simulation results substantiated that the compensated artificial potential based planner successfully found a path to guide the mobile manipulator to the target object in the presence of the local minima.