Potential Fields

by Timothy Lizardi

Submitted : Spring 2012

Using the SeekGoal and AvoidObstacle methods for a robot, we were able to graph out the movement from a starting location to a goal. The robot started off by moving quickly toward the goal, but then slowed down when getting close to an obstacle. Eventually, once it got close enough, it would move in the opposite direction of the obstacle.

On its way to the goal, it had a series of attractive and repulsive forces act on it. Because of this, it had to ‘bounce’ between the goal and the obstruction, until it reached a point where it was far away enough from the obstacle to move straight toward the goal without crashing.

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