Advances In Robot Navigation

Robot navigation includes different interrelated activities such as perception - obtaining and interpreting sensory information; exploration - the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; mapping - the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; localization - the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; path planning - the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. This book integrates results from the research work of authors all over the world, addressing the abovementioned activities and analyzing the critical implications of dealing with dynamic environments. Different solutions providing adaptive navigation are taken from nature inspiration, and diverse applications are described in the context of an important field of study: social robotics.

Intelligent Mobile Robot Navigation builds upon the application of fuzzy logic to the area of intelligent control of mobile robots. Reactive, planned, and teleoperated techniques are considered, leading to the development of novel fuzzy control systems for perception and navigation of nonholonomic autonomous vehicles. The unique feature of this monograph lies in its comprehensive treatment of the problem, from the theoretical development of the various schemes down to the real-time implementation of algorithms on mobile robot prototypes. As such, the book spans different domains ranging from mobile robots to intelligent transportation systems, from automatic control to artificial intelligence.

This pioneering book describes the development of a robot mapping and navigation system inspired by models of the neural mechanisms underlying spatial navigation in the rodent hippocampus. Computational models of animal navigation systems have traditionally had limited performance when implemented on robots. This is the first research to test existing models of rodent spatial mapping and navigation on robots in large, challenging, real world environments.

Robot navigation includes different interrelated activities such as perception - obtaining and interpreting sensory information; exploration - the strategy that guides the robot to select the next direction to go; mapping - the construction of a spatial representation by using the sensory information perceived; localization - the strategy to estimate the robot position within the spatial map; path planning - the strategy to find a path towards a goal location being optimal or not; and path execution, where motor actions are determined and adapted to environmental changes. This book integrates results from the research work of authors all over the world, addressing the abovementioned activities and analyzing the critical implications of dealing with dynamic environments. Different solutions providing adaptive navigation are taken from nature inspiration, and diverse applications are described in the context of an important field of study: social robotics.

This book presents a foundation for a broad class of mobile robot mapping and navigation methodologies for indoor, outdoor, and exploratory missions. It addresses the challenging problem of autonomous navigation in dynamic environments, presenting new ideas and approaches in this emerging technical domain. Coverage discusses in detail various related challenging technical aspects and addresses upcoming technologies in this field.

Safe Robot Navigation Among Moving and Steady Obstacles is the first book to focus on reactive navigation algorithms in unknown dynamic environments with moving and steady obstacles. The first three chapters provide introduction and background on sliding mode control theory, sensor models, and vehicle kinematics. Chapter 4 deals with the problem of optimal navigation in the presence of obstacles. Chapter 5 discusses the problem of reactively navigating. In Chapter 6, border patrolling algorithms are applied to a more general problem of reactively navigating. A method for guidance of a Dubins-like mobile robot is presented in Chapter 7. Chapter 8 introduces and studies a simple biologically-inspired strategy for navigation a Dubins-car. Chapter 9 deals with a hard scenario where the environment of operation is cluttered with obstacles that may undergo arbitrary motions, including rotations and deformations. Chapter 10 presents a novel reactive algorithm for collision free navigation of a nonholonomic robot in unknown complex dynamic environments with moving obstacles. Chapter 11 introduces and examines a novel purely reactive algorithm to navigate a planar mobile robot in densely cluttered environments with unpredictably moving and deforming obstacles. Chapter 12 considers a multiple robot scenario. For the Control and Automation Engineer, this book offers accessible and precise development of important mathematical models and results. All the presented results have mathematically rigorous proofs. On the other hand, the Engineer in Industry can benefit by the experiments with real robots such as Pioneer robots, autonomous wheelchairs and autonomous mobile hospital. First book on collision free reactive robot navigation in unknown dynamic environments Bridges the gap between mathematical model and practical algorithms Presents implementable and computationally efficient algorithms of robot navigation Includes mathematically rigorous proofs of their convergence A detailed review of existing reactive navigation algorithm for obstacle avoidance Describes fundamentals of sliding mode control

The presence of mobile robots in diverse scenarios is considerably increasing to perform a variety of tasks. Among them, many developments have occurred in the fields of ground, underwater, and flying robotics. Independent of the environment where they move, navigation is a fundamental ability of mobile robots so that they can autonomously complete high-level tasks. This problem can be efficiently addressed through the following actions: First, it is necessary to perceive the environment in which the robot has to move, and extract some relevant information (mapping problem). Second, the robot must be able to estimate its position and orientation within this environment (localization problem). With this information, a trajectory toward the target points must be planned (path planning), and the vehicle must be reactively guided along this trajectory considering either possible changes or interactions with the environment or with the user (control). Given this information, this book introduces current frameworks in these fields (mapping, localization, path planning, and control) and, in general, approaches to any problem related to the navigation of mobile robots, such as odometry, exploration, obstacle avoidance, and simulation.

The German Workshop on Robotics is a convention of roboticists from academia and industry working on mathematical and algorithmic foundations of robotics, on the design and analysis of robotic systems as well as on robotic applications. Selected contributions from researchers in German-speaking countries as well as from the international robotics community compose this volume. The papers are organized in ten scientific tracks: Kinematic and Dynamic Modeling, Motion Generation, Sensor Integration, Robot Vision, Robot Programming, Humanoid Robots, Grasping, Medical Robotics, Autonomous Helicopters, and Robot Applications. Due to an extensive review and discussion process, this collection of scientific contributions is of very high caliber and promises to strongly influence future robotic research activities.