Multi-robot path planning based on improved artificial potential field and fuzzy inference system 1

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a method to assess the collision risk and a strategy to avoid the collision for solving the problem of dynamic real-time collision avoidance between robots when a multi-robot system is applied to perform a given task collaboratively and cooperatively. The collision risk assessment method is based on the moving direction and position of robots, and the collision avoidance strategy is based on the artificial potential field (APF) and the fuzzy inference system (FIS). The traditional artificial potential field (TAPF) has the problem of the local minimum, which will be optimized by improving the repulsive field function. To adjust the speed of the robot adaptively and improve the security performance of the system, the FIS is used to plan the speed of robots. The hybridization of the improved artificial potential field (IAPF) and the FIS will make each robot safely and quickly find a collision-free path from the starting position to the target position in a completely unknown environment. The simulation results show that the strategy is effective and useful for collision avoidance in multi-robot systems.