• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.8-15
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• 2011

This paper proposes a real-time navigation algorithm which integrates the artificial potential field (APF) for an unmanned vehicle in the unknown environment. This approach uses repulsive potential function around the obstacles to force the vehicle away and an attractive potential function around the goal to attract the vehicle. In this research, laser range finder is used as range sensor. An obstacle detected by the sensor creates repulsive vector. Differential global positioning system (DGPS) and digital compass are used to measure the current vehicle position and orientation. The measured vehicle position is also used to create attractive vector. This paper proposes a new concept of potential field based navigation which controls unmanned vehicle's speed and steering. The magnitude of repulsive force based on the proposed algorithm is designed not to be over the magnitude of attractive force while the magnitude is increased linearly as being closer to obstacle. Consequently, the vehicle experiences a generalized force toward the negative gradient of the total potential. This force drives the vehicle downhill towards its goal configuration until the vehicle reaches minimum potential and it stops. The effectiveness of the proposed APF for unmanned vehicle is verified through simulation and experiment.