A Harmonic Potential, Space-Time Navigation Control with Obstacle Forecast, Avoidance and Guaranteed Time of Arrival

This paper suggests a novel space-time (ND+t) provably-correct navigation controller for dynamical agents. The controller can steer an agent to a target point along a safe and well-behaved trajectory in a cluttered space while guaranteeing an operator-specified time of arrival. The spacetime control action is induced from harmonic fields called nonlinear anisotropic harmonic fields that are defined on Machian state space-time. The approach is developed and its capabilities are verified theoretically and by simulation.