Velocity potentials and fuzzy modeling of fluid streamlines for obstacle avoidance of mobile robots

The use of the velocity potential of an incompressible fluid is an important and elegant tool for obstacle avoidance of mobile robots. Obstacles are modeled as cylindrical objects - combinations of cylinders can also form super obstacles. Possible trajectories of a vehicle are given by a set of streamlines around the obstacle computed by the velocity potential. Because of the number of streamlines and of data points involved therein, models of sets of streamlines for different sizes of obstacles are created first using dataset models and finally fuzzy models of streamlines. Once an obstacle appears in the sensor cone of the robot the set of streamlines is computed from which that streamline is selected that guarantees a smooth transition from/to the planned trajectory. Collisions with other robots are avoided by a combination of velocity potential and force potential and/or the change of streamlines during operation (lane hopping).