A novel potential field method for path planning of mobile robots by adapting animal motion attributes

This paper presents a concept for path planning of mobile robots in household environments. The proposed algorithm takes communicative means of locomotion into account in order to facilitate human-robot interaction. The well-known traditional artificial potential field method (APF) was extended by motion characteristics of household animals. The proposed algorithm includes velocity and orientation information and can be used in unknown; dynamic environments. The main contribution of this paper is the definition of an online, local path planning method by adapting animal motion attributes in order to assist human-robot interaction. The algorithm was implemented in an embedded system and evaluated on MOGI-ETHON, a holonomic drive mobile robot. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.