In autonomous robotics, so-called artificial potential fields are often used to plan and control the motion of a physical robot. In this paper, we propose to use an artificial electric field to address the problem or real time action selection in embodied, autonomous agents. We attach positive and negative electric charges to the relevant objects in the agent's domain, and use the resulting electric field to estimate the heuristic value of a given configuration. This value is used to select the action that results in the best configuration. This allows us to consider in the same framework both navigation and manipulation actions. We apply the electric field approach in the RoboCup domain, and present results drawn from our experience in the Sony legged robots league.