Exploration technique using potential fields calculated from relaxation methods

The use of relaxation methods for calculation of harmonic potentials has proved to be a powerful technique for path planning in a known environment. We show that this idea can be successfully extended to exploration of unknown environments. The potential is calculated in a partial version of the map, represented on an occupancy grid, and it indicates safe paths towards the unexplored regions. We demonstrate that a complete relaxation of the potential is not necessary to accomplish smooth performances. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of different relaxation methods in the calculation of harmonic potential