Obstacle avoidance for mobile robots using artificial potential field approach with simulated annealing

The artificial potential field methods provide simple and effective motion planners for practical purposes. However, there is a major problem with the artificial potential field approach. It is the formation of local minima that can trap the robot before reaching its goal. The avoidance of local minima has been an active research topic in potential field path planning. As one of the powerful techniques for escaping local minima, simulated annealing has been applied to local and global path planning. In this paper, the authors present and apply the mobile robot path planning technique which integrate the artificial potential field approach with simulated annealing to mobile robots.