Abstract
In this paper we have described a system which permits an experimental robot vehicle to navigate in a cluttered laboratory. This system demonstrates the robustness and flexibility which are provided by viewing the navigation problem as a problem of feedback control of layers corresponding to signals, effectors, actions and tasks.
The basic navigation action in our system is servoeing toward a goal point, provided by procedure “follow()”. The procedure Follow() has been specialized to provide procedures GoTo() to arrive at a goal point, and GoThrough() to pass through a sequence of points. All of these functions rely of perception actions FreePath, TurnPath an FindPath.
The system we have described relies on 24 ultrasonic range sensors. This numbers of sensors is inadequate to properly model an environment containing unknown small objects, such as table legs. In order to improve the robustness of the system we have added reflexes to stop in front of an obstacle, and to be repelled from an obstacle.
The system continues to experience occasional problems with un-modeled table legs. An additional source of problems are important visitors who wear suit-pants made of highly specular materials such as silk. We expect to solve this problem in the near future by installing a hardware implementation of our real-time vertical line stereo system.
This work was sponsored by Project EUREKA EU 110: MITHRA and ESPRIT BR 3038 “Vision as Process”.
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© 1993 Springer-Verlag London Limited
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Crowley, J.L., Reignier, P., Causse, O., Wallner, F. (1993). Action level behaviours for locomotion and perception. In: Chatila, R., Hirzinger, G. (eds) Experimental Robotics II. Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol 190. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0036149
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BFb0036149
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