Path planning of mobile robot in dynamic environment: fuzzy artificial potential field and extensible neural network

Path planning in dynamic environment is a great challenge for mobile robot. A large number of approaches have been used to deal with it. Since the neural network algorithm has the ability to find the optimal solution at high speed and self-learning function, it has achieved extensive applications in the path planning tasks. Considering that the optimization performance of the neural network heavily depends on the quality of the training sample, this paper proposes a novel way to provide the training samples for the neural network. Work space of the robot is divided into two parts: global safe area and local dangerous area. In the global safe area, the robot only receives the attraction force from the target and it moves towards the target directly. In the dangerous area, except the attraction force, the robot also receives the repulsion force from the obstacle(s). The repulsion force and the angle between the obstacle and the target (origin of the coordinate is in the position of the robot) are used to be the inputs of the fuzzy inferencing system, and the deflection angle of the robot is the output. The final moving direction of the robot is determined by summing this deflection angle and the direction of the attraction force. The coordinates of the target and obstacle, and the moving direction of the robot corresponding to this position relationship, constitute the training samples for the neural network. Benefited from the precise moving direction obtained by the fuzzy artificial potential field algorithm, the neural network gets excellent path optimization ability. Simulation and physical experiment results demonstrate the potential of the proposed algorithm.