An improved artificial potential field method is proposed to solve the local minimum which exists in the traditional artificial potential field. First, on the basis of improving the attractive field and repulsive field functions of traditional artificial potential field, the problem on goals non-reachable with obstacles nearby (GNRON) is solved by determining the reasonable range of gain of gravitational field and repulsive field. Then, the fuzzy control algorithm is used to calculate the fuzzy

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... repulsion force and the situation when different obstacles are located between the robot and the goal is solved by calculating the virtual force using the fuzzy repulsion force which navigates the robot moving around the obstacle. At last, the proposed approach is verified by MATLAB simulation and indoor experiment, the results of which illustrate that the improved artificial potential field method is effective to solve the local minimal problem.