potential_fields
- Software
- Navigation and mapping
- Library
A C++ library and ROS 2 package implementing artificial potential field methods for path planning and shared control of robotic manipulators.
Made by argallab.
Source on GitHub: github.com/argallab/potential_fields (opens in a new tab). Facts read at commit c8b73bd (opens in a new tab).
Licenses
- Code
- Apache-2.0 (opens in a new tab)
Read by Robotheca from LICENSE (opens in a new tab) (Apache-2.0) at commit c8b73bd (opens in a new tab), on 16 Oct 2026.
- Commercial use
- Yes
What it does
- Implements artificial potential field methods for path planning and shared control of robotic arms.
- Core C++ library is ROS-agnostic and can be used independently of ROS.
- Designed to be modular, so it can be integrated with different robot platforms and kinematics solvers.
- Provides ROS 2 integration with core node, message and service definitions, and demos.
- Includes a demo launch file that starts the potential field manager, visualization, and a demo node.
- Supports custom robots through abstract base classes for inverse kinematics solvers and motion plugins.
Written by Robotheca from the project's README (opens in a new tab) at commit c8b73bd.
Getting started
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- Hardware it needs, as the project states it
- Developed with ROS 2 Jazzy on Linux; requires Eigen, URDF, FCL, CCD, Assimp, and Pinocchio installed via robotpkg; the demo uses an XArm7 robot (URDF) or other configured URDF robots.
- How to start
- The project's website (opens in a new tab)
Maintenance
- Status
- Maintained: a commit in the last 12 months
- Newest commit
- 5 Apr 2026 on main
- Latest release
- None published on GitHub
Checked on GitHub on 16 Oct 2026.
Links
Robots that can run it
No robot on Robotheca is linked to it yet. Links come from a robot's robot.yaml, from its dependency files read as text, or from Robotheca's editors.
Robotheca lists software as a reference: nothing is hosted or run here, and every fact links to where it was read.