Mobile robot motion planning-stability, convergence and control

Presents a unified approach to the navigation and control of a mobile robot. In the past, path planning has often been referred to as a `high level´ task and has been completely separated from the so called `lower level´ control of a real mobile vehicle. The authors consider here the total energy of a mobile vehicle when influenced under a good seeking navigation strategy. This energy function is used to produce a control law directly to drive a mobile vehicle. The authors also incorporate directly an estimate of an artificial repulsive potential field into the low level controller