In front of humans, the behavior of robotic systems up to now has often been considered machinery or stereotyped. Some limitations of current methods include the lack of a framework for robots to autonomously adapt their actions or the tendency to treat humans as ordinary obstacles. Several prominent proposals, such as the use of the artificial potential field (APF) technique, have attracted the attention of many scholars. Additionally, there is a critical need for a comprehensive review and systematic synthesis of related research in this field. Therefore, in this paper, we review numerous studies that utilize relevant techniques. We consider various aspects, such as focusing only on works from the past 5 years to ensure relevance, with most of the studies published in international journals by reputable publishers. Our research results identify proposed APF variations, techniques that effectively combine with APF, and the most common application areas for this technique.