Autonomous Navigation System for Planetary Exploration Rover based on Artificial Potential Fields

Abstract

In this paper a navigation system for an autonomous planetary exploration rover, based on artificial potential fields, is presented. The rover moves to a predefined final position avoiding the obstacles detected by an artificial vision system developed for that purpose. Every obstacle is associated with a repulsive field, while the target point is associated with an attractive field. All these potential fields are combined to determine the total field at the rover position and its gradient, from which the direction of the next step of the rover is defined. Numerical and experimental tests of the algorithm are reported.