Field based navigation for 3D obstacle avoidance

Mobile Robot Navigation techniques are important for path calculation towards a target, avoiding collisions in an unknown environment. The existing robot navigation techniques conclude a diverse spectrum of applications in 2D space. But navigation solutions in 3D space have been hardly addressed by the researchers for a combination of a mobile platform and a robot arm. This paper proposes a novel technique for navigation planning in 3D space for a combination of a mobile platform and a robot arm. The proposed method was derived using the field based navigation techniques to the robot end effector. Applicability of the proposed mathematical model was first derived and simulated for a 2D environment. Proposed mathematical model applicability in 3D space for a single obstacle environment and multiple obstacle environment was analyzed in this paper. The 3D model can be applied to a robot with end effector and the complete solution set was given to overcome the drawbacks of the system. The performance and applicability of the proposed navigation model is also confirmed using a Matlab simulation. The tuning of the model would create different path trajectories and these would be applicable for different types of environments. The proposed algorithm can be applied in a mobile robot platform with a robot arm and sensors to detect depth and position of robot.