Mobile robot navigation

About: Mobile robot navigation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 14713 publications have been published within this topic receiving 263092 citations.

Odor sensing for robot guidance

Abstract: There is no generally applicable technique for finding the position of an autonomous mobile robot operating in an un structured or varying environment. This article describes a project to investigate the use of short-lived navigational mark ers consisting of olfactory chemicals to guide mobile robots and to help them search and explore efficiently. Such a method of laying a trail to mark the path of a robot provides differ ential navigational information relative to the starting point and starting direction. Many insects employ olfactory cues as navigation aids and to improve their efficiency when searching for food. Three scenarios are proposed in which navigational markers can be of assistance to a mobile robot. The design and characteristics of an adsorbed mass olfactory sensor are described. This sensor was designed to be mounted on a mo bile robot and is suitable for detecting and tracking olfactory chemicals. The performance of this sensor is described together with preliminary results of using it t...

ROS based Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation using 2D LiDAR and RGB-D Camera

Abstract: This paper presents an implementation of autonomous mobile robot with the robot operating system (ROS). The system utilizes 2D LiDAR and RGB-D camera with ROS 2D navigation stack, with low power consumption and inexpensive onboard computer. Safe to property and human is of priority. Regarding software, we use official ROS packages with minimal default parameter changes. For hardware, the limitation of equipment and system setting are among challenges. Our proposed systems can perform navigation with dynamic obstacle avoidance capability. The Contribution of this paper is two system setups of ROS navigation stack are proposed. The first system is implemented on Raspberry Pi 3 using 2D LiDAR only. The second system is implemented on Intel NUC using 2D LiDAR and RGB-D camera. To evaluate the performance, usability testing was performed in multiple experiments. Our experiment results show that the robot can avoid objects in their path, or stop in case of unavoidable. Discussion of problems and solutions are presented after the experiment results.

Planning and Executing Navigation Among Movable Obstacles

Abstract: This paper explores autonomous locomotion, reaching, grasping and manipulation for the domain of Navigation Among Movable Obstacles (NAMO). The robot perceives and constructs a model of an environment filled with various fixed and movable obstacles, and automatically plans a navigation strategy to reach a desired goal location. The planned strategy consists of a sequence of walking and compliant manipulation operations. It is executed by the robot with online feedback. We give an overview of our NAMO system, as well as provide details of the autonomous planning, online grasping and compliant hand positioning during dynamically-stable walking. Finally, we present results of a successful implementation running on the Humanoid Robot HRP-2.

The obstacle-restriction method for robot obstacle avoidance in difficult environments

Abstract: This paper addresses the obstacle avoidance problem in difficult scenarios that usually are dense, complex and cluttered. The proposal is a method called the obstacle-restriction. At each iteration of the control cycle, this method addresses the obstacle avoidance in two steps. First there is procedure to compute instantaneous subgoals in the obstacle structure (obtained by the sensors). The second step associates a motion restriction to each obstacle, which are managed next to compute the most promising motion direction. The advantage of this technique is that it avoids common limitations of previous obstacle avoidance methods, improving their navigation performance in difficult scenarios. Furthermore, we obtain similar results to the recent methods that achieve navigation in troublesome scenarios. However, the new method improves their behavior in open spaces. The performance of this method is illustrated with experimental results obtained with a robotic wheelchair vehicle.

Mobile manipulation through an assistive home robot

Abstract: We present a mobile manipulation platform operated by a motor-impaired person using input from a head-tracker, single-button mouse. The platform is used to perform varied and unscripted manipulation tasks in a real home, combining navigation, perception and manipulation. The operator can make use of a wide range of interaction methods and tools, from direct tele-operation of the gripper or mobile base to autonomous sub-modules performing collision-free base navigation or arm motion planning. We describe the complete set of tools that enable the execution of complex tasks, and share the lessons learned from testing them in a real user's home. In the context of grasping, we show how the use of autonomous sub-modules improves performance in complex, cluttered environments, and compare the results to those obtained by novice, able-bodied users operating the same system.