Study On The Local Path Planning For Intelligent Vehicles Based On An Improved Vfh Method

A local path planning method has been proposed and implemented for intelligent vehicles, the vector field histogram sharp (VFH#). In this study, an intelligent vehicle was made to manoeuvre through obstacles by the VFH# method. This local path planning method is the result of an improvement on a method called vector field histogram (VFH). The VFH method is sensitive to the threshold value for determining candidate sectors. And it is difficult for an intelligent vehicle to travel through narrow corridors by the VFH method. The VFH# method enlarges obstacles to avoid collisions. And it designs a new means of acquiring the magnitude of obstacle vector to eliminate sensitivity. In each sector, it chooses the largest magnitude as the resistance value among obstacle vectors. The method is applied on an electric vehicle to verify the performance; and it achieves an excellent result.