Evaluating the Performances of the Agoraphilic Navigation Algorithm under Dead-Lock Situations

This paper presents a summary of the research which was conducted in developing a new free-space based (Agoraphilic) navigation algorithm. This new methodology is capable of maneuvering robots in static as well as dynamically cluttered unknown environments. The new algorithm uses only one force to drive the robot. This force is always an attractive force created by the freespace. This force is focused towards the goal by a force shaping module. Consequently, the robot is motivated to follow free-space directing towards the goal. As this method only based on the attractive forces, the robot always moves towards the goal as long as there is free-space available. This method has eradicated many drawbacks of the traditional APF method. Several experimental tests were conducted using Turtlebot3 research platform. These tests were focused on testing the behavior of the new algorithm under dead-lock (local minima) situations for APF method. The test results proved that the proposed algorithm has successfully eliminated the local minima problem of APF method.