Artificial moment method for local path planning of single robot

For the local path planning of single robot, two new concepts, optimal way representative point and dangerous wall representative point, are defined for path optimization and obstacle-avoidance. A new attraction moment function to make robot's principal motion direction line (PMDline) face to the present optimal way representative point in general and a new repulsion moment function to make robot's PMDline away to the corresponding dangerous wall representative point are designed. Then, a motion controller is designed based on the two artificial moments. As the controller will make robot move along its PMDline with its longest step length when the line segment between robot and target is blocked by obstacles, robot will not be trapped even in complicated environments. The algorithm for optimal way representative points, the general steps for the path planning and a simulation are also given. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method is of feasibility and validity.