Abstract
The objective of this thesis is performing path planning to avoid obstacles by Artificial Potential Field Method. The experimental system consists of a wheeled robot, a scanning laser range finder, and a notebook. In Artificial Potential Field Method, the mobile robot is viewed as a particle, and the environment as a virtual potential field. In the moving area, obstacles produce repulsive force, and the target produces attractive force to the mobile robot. According to the environment information obtaining from scanning data, we can determine whether the obstacle is moving or not, and also calculate the resultant force of all obstacles in setting range and the target by Artificial Potential Field Method. By analyzing the resultant force calculated by Artificial Potential Field Method and choosing step size by Steepest Descend Method, we can control the motion of the robot so that the mobile robot can avoid obstacles and moving toward the target. In this thesis, the robot can determine the status of obstacles and following the motion strategy safely avoid obstacles, and move toward the target. After reaching the target, the robot moves toward the preset U-shaped object (charger place) by alignment and being recharged automatically.