Path planning in multiple obstacle areas for omni-directional mobile manipulators based on the APFIGA

A method for the path planning for an omni-directional mobile manipulator based on the artificial potential field method improved by the genetic algorithm(APFIGA) is proposed to solve the difficulties in robot path planning in a multiple obstacle area. The method uses the traversing coefficient to encourage a robot to traverse a traversable multiple obstacle area. Thus the path planning ability can be improved. And it can obtain a path in which the potential field strength decreases fast by using the manipulator's neighborhood potential field strength information, and the movement direction and the speed of the manipulator is determined by using the genetic algorithm. Due to the introducing of the effect of robot speed and the mobile obstacle speed, the path planning ability under dynamic environments is improved. The problem that the robot is easy to shake around obstacles is solved. The target point unreachable problem is solved by adding the coefficient item proportional to target distance to the repulsion potential. The local minimum value problem is solved by adding the additional potential field to fill local minimum. The results of simulation and physical experiment verified that the proposed path planning method was correct and effective.