Potential field method is a very popular simulation for Robot Navigation. However, has anyone implemented Potential field method on real robots ? Any reference or any claim of using the method in real robots ?.
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Hi, I have done potential field based path planning before, but abandoned it in favour of more appropriate approaches to my problem. It works adequately for environments where you have accurate localization, and accurate sensor readings, but much less so in real world environments (its not a particulary great solution even in terms of speed and path quality, even in simulation). Considering that there are now a lot of good SLAM implementations available either free or low cost, I wouldnt bother reimplementing unless you have very specific problems with reuse. For MRDS (what i work in) there is Karto Robotics, ROS has a SLAM implementation, and there are several open-source implementations only a google search away.
If you want a good overview of different approaches to path planning, then you might want to grab a copy of "introduction to Autonomous Mobile Robots" by Segwart et al. Its a pretty good book, and the path planning section gives a nice overview of the different strategies around.
Tom
2010-05-10 00:02:41
@Tom : Many thanks ..... and I used to think that my question will go unanswered. I guess you should get the 100 points, can you please send me details of your potential field work (which is in public domain or formally published) to my email [email protected] . Much appreciated
Arkapravo
2010-05-10 04:29:57
@Tom : Can you please send your publications etc
Arkapravo
2010-05-13 04:28:42
@Tom : Segwart's book is very nice. I have an e-copy and most of the topics are nicely dealt.
Arkapravo
2010-06-15 07:05:45
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I would suggest reading the book Planning Algorithms by Steven M. LaValle if you are generally interested in path or motion planning. Methods described in this book are actively used in the robotics community.
A search on google scholar or the IEEE website on the other hand will get you a lot of references to papers describing usage and research of the potential field method.
MKroehnert
2010-05-10 08:53:13
@MKroehnert : I have read lots of material :) .... I wanted a first person opinion on the potential field based navigation ...in real robots ...not a computer screen ! :)
Arkapravo
2010-05-10 11:44:05
@Arkapravo: in our lab the RRT based approach is used for motion and path planning and it works well.The planning in OpenRAVE (http://openrave.programmingvision.com) is also done with RRTs and is used together with several "real" robotic projects.Unforunately I do not have any meaningful experience with the potential field method.
MKroehnert
2010-05-10 11:57:10
@MKroehnert : I did get oodles of research papers on the topic from IEEE and Science Direct websites. :)
Arkapravo
2010-08-22 06:06:18
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A quick Google for potential field methods brought up this paper: Potential Field Methods and Their Inherent Limitations for Mobile Robot Navigation and reminded me about problems from the last time I worked with a potential field method.
In our projects (CWRU Mobile Robotics), we have seen these exact problems with potential field based algorithms. The last attempt, a mobile robot to compete at IGVC in 2009, had the same issues described in that paper, specifically with local minima and not being able to pass through closely spaced obstacles. I distinctly remember having to work around issues with the closely spaced obstacles while attempting to plan through a narrow opening in a fence as part of the GPS waypoint navigation challenge of IGVC.
We were able to get pretty decent planning speed out of the algorithm by using custom OpenGL shaders to do all of the computation while representing the potential field as an image/framebuffer. As Tom points out, it is not so good in unknown or dynamic environments, as in those situations the potential field will never stabilize and will constantly require updating.
Eric Perko
2010-05-10 20:55:55
@Eric Perko : I have read through that paper, nice to know about your experience.
Arkapravo
2010-05-11 03:31:20
@Eric Perko : Do you have any published article on your implementation ? .... OpenGL shaders looks nice ... never knew I could marry OpenGL with navigation interface .... never thought in those terms ..
Arkapravo
2010-05-11 08:25:50
@Arkapravo: We don't have anything published regarding that implementation, at least that I am aware of. I will see if I can make the source code available and then put a link to it in my post.As for using OpenGL (and image processing stuff in general such as OpenCV), we have seen uses for them in navigation anywhere we need to mass update any structure that can be represented by a grayscale image or framebuffer, such as a potential field or occupancy grid.
Eric Perko
2010-05-11 12:22:31
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As @Tom pointed out above, you can't usually rely on perfect sensor readings or the motors moving you exactly as far as you thought you told them to.
The relatively novel approach to SLAM I had a chance to use years ago was the Generalized Voronoi Graph (GVG); basically, stay equidistant from the nearest two walls, keep moving, and at points where you're equidistant to three or more walls, come back and try each two-wall branch at some point. You'll build a graph that gets you all the way around the room, and guarantees you've had line-of-sight on everything in the room.
Dean J
2010-05-11 17:56:53