  This paper demonstrates the ability of the harmonic potential field, HPF,
planning method to generate a well-behaved constrained path for a robot with
second order dynamics in a cluttered environment. It is shown that HPF-based
controllers may be developed for holonomic as well as nonholonomic robots to
effectively suppress the effect of inertial forces on the robot trajectory
while maintaining all the attractive features of a purely kinematic HPF
planner. The capabilities of the suggested navigation controller are
demonstrated using simulation results. Comparisons are also supplied with other
approaches used for converting the guidance signal from a purely kinematic HPF
planner into a navigation control signal.
