Path Planning of Unmanned Ships Using Modified APF Algorithm

Artificial potential field algorithm is a classical path planning algorithm which has been developed continuously in the past decades. Although it is suitable in virous kinds of situations, there are also some shortcomings which prevent it from further applications. This paper improves the algorithm for some special obstacle avoidance scenarios, such as the problem that the traditional APF method cannot be applied to when the threat area is an irregular polygon and so on. The improved APF algorithm is based on the traditional APF algorithm with a combination of new modelling ideas. To further verify the modified algorithm, MATLAB software is used for simulation under different situations. The new program can be applied in more complex obstacle avoidance scenarios.