The Potential Field Obstacle Avoider was the beginning of a larger project described in the link belowe. However, because a lot of problems which i had to overcome with the potential fields algorithm the Obstacle Avoider became my final project.

Old Project

My project is to design an obstacle avoider with SICK laser readings. For the task I use the Potential Fields algorithm, which represents the target point as an attractive force and the obstacles as repulsive forces. At the present my target function is constant with a magnitude of 200, while my obstacle function is parabolic (1/x^2) where x is the distance between the obstacle and the robot. I have used the laser readings to develop a vector that segments the 180 degrees in front of the robot into obstacle and free areas. I have two modes: if the target is visible and if it is blocked. If the target is visible then the robot should move towards it in incremental distances as to be able to detect any new obstacles that may appear on its path and to react to the change of its environment. The other function navigates the robot to the target by avoiding the obstacles around it. The increments prevent the robot from crashing with anew obstacle.