{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,6]],"date-time":"2026-04-06T10:19:03Z","timestamp":1775470743681,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,5]],"date-time":"2023-04-05T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1680652800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Key R&amp;D Program of China","award":["2021ZD0140409"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021ZD0140409"]}]},{"name":"National Key R&amp;D Program of China","award":["62003232"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62003232"]}]},{"name":"National Key R&amp;D Program of China","award":["2020L0072"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020L0072"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2021ZD0140409"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021ZD0140409"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["62003232"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62003232"]}]},{"name":"National Natural Science Foundation of China","award":["2020L0072"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020L0072"]}]},{"name":"STIP of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi","award":["2021ZD0140409"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021ZD0140409"]}]},{"name":"STIP of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi","award":["62003232"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["62003232"]}]},{"name":"STIP of Higher Education Institutions in Shanxi","award":["2020L0072"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2020L0072"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In medical and surgical scenarios, the trajectory planning of a collaborative robot arm is a difficult problem. The artificial potential field (APF) algorithm is a classic method for robot trajectory planning, which has the characteristics of good real-time performance and low computing consumption. There are many variants of the APF algorithm, among which the most widely used variants is the velocity potential field (VPF) algorithm. However, the traditional VPF algorithm has inherent defects and problems, such as easily falling into local minimum, being unable to reach the target, poor dynamic obstacle avoidance ability, and safety and efficiency problems. Therefore, this work presents the improved velocity potential field (IVPF) algorithm, which considers direction factors, obstacle velocity factor, and tangential velocity. When encountering dynamic obstacles, the IVPF algorithm can avoid obstacles better to ensure the safety of both the human and robot arm. The IVPF algorithm also does not easily fall into a local problem when encountering different obstacles. The experiments informed the RRT* algorithm, VPF algorithm, and IVPF algorithm for comparison. Compared with the informed RRT* and VPF algorithm, the result of experiments indicate that the performances of the IVPF algorithm have significant improvements when dealing with different obstacles. The main aim of this paper is to provide a safe and efficient path planning algorithm for the robot arm in the medical field. The proposed algorithm can ensure the safety of both the human and the robot arm when the medical and surgical robot arm is working, and enables the robot arm to cope with emergencies and perform tasks better. The application of the proposed algorithm could make the collaborative robots work in a flexible and safe condition, which could open up new opportunities for the future development of medical and surgical scenarios.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23073754","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,5]],"date-time":"2023-04-05T05:42:44Z","timestamp":1680673364000},"page":"3754","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":45,"title":["Path Planning for Obstacle Avoidance of Robot Arm Based on Improved Potential Field Method"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"given":"Xinkai","family":"Xia","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Shanxi Institute of 6D Artificial Intelligence Biomedical Science, Taiyuan 030031, China"}]},{"given":"Tao","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Medical Big Data Research Center, Department of Medical Innovation Research, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3011-7632","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Shengbo","family":"Sang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Key Lab of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of the Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"}]},{"given":"Yongqiang","family":"Cheng","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Key Lab of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of the Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"}]},{"given":"Huanzhou","family":"Ma","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Shanxi Institute of 6D Artificial Intelligence Biomedical Science, Taiyuan 030031, China"}]},{"given":"Qiang","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Key Lab of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of the Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8961-082X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Kun","family":"Yang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Key Laboratory of Micro Nano Sensor & Artificial Intelligence Perception, College of Information and Computer, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"},{"name":"Key Lab of Advanced Transducers and Intelligent Control System of the Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan 030024, China"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4,5]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"103","DOI":"10.1007\/s11701-006-0002-x","article-title":"Evolution of robotic arms","volume":"1","author":"Moran","year":"2007","journal-title":"J. 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