Figure 8. Potential at every point; it is highest in the obstacles and lowest at the goal-Design and Implementation of a Fully Autonomous UAV's Navigator Based on Omni-directional Vision System

<p>The numerical potential field path planner is guaranteed to produce a<br> path even if the start or goal is placed in an obstacle. If there is no possible way to get from the start<br> to the goal without passing through an obstacle then the path planner will generate a path through<br> the obstacle, although if there is any alternative then the path will do that instead. For this reason, it<br> is important to make sure that there is some possible path, although there are ways around this<br> restriction such as returning an error if the potential at the start point is too high. The path is found<br> by moving to the neighboring square with the lowest potential, starting at any point in the space and<br> stopping when the goal is reached.</p>