Waypoint Navigation with Position and Heading Control using Complex Vector Fields for an Ackermann Steering Autonomous Vehicle

Vector field (otherwise known as force vector or force field) navigation has been used in mobile robotics primarily for goal oriented navigation and obstacle avoidance. At the most basic level the vector field consists of attractive forces, goals, and repulsive forces, usually objects. Both attractive and repulsive forces are usually characterised as point forces. The shortfall of this characterisation is that there is no way of controlling the heading of the mobile robot as it reaches the goal position. In this paper various methods of altering the goal vector field will be looked at. These methods include investigating clustered attractive and repulsive forces as well as introducing rotational and line based forces. This investigation was run using a simulated model of an Ackermann steering vehicle. Results indicated that a complex vector field approach was able to give position and heading control at waypoints with the chosen simulated vehicle.