Safe Navigation of a Mobile Robot Considering Visibility of Environment

• Published in: IEEE transactions on industrial electronics (1982) Vol. 56; no. 10; pp. 3941 - 3950
• Main Authors: Woojin Chung, Woojin Chung, Seokgyu Kim, Seokgyu Kim, Minki Choi, Minki Choi, Jaesik Choi, Jaesik Choi, Hoyeon Kim, Hoyeon Kim, Chang-bae Moon, Chang-bae Moon, Jae-Bok Song, Jae-Bok Song
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.10.2009; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Algorithms; Buildings; Collision avoidance; Collision dynamics; Dynamics; Mobile robot navigation; Mobile robots; Motion control; Navigation; obstacle avoidance; Obstacles; Path planning; Risk; Robot control; Robot motion; Robots; speed control; Studies; Testing; Velocity control; Visibility
• ISSN: 0278-0046; 1557-9948
• DOI: 10.1109/TIE.2009.2025293

We present one approach to achieve safe navigation in an indoor dynamic environment. So far, there have been various useful collision avoidance algorithms and path planning schemes. However, those algorithms possess fundamental limitations in that the robot can avoid only ldquovisiblerdquo ones among surrounded obstacles. In a real environment, it is not possible to detect all the dynamic obstacles around the robot. There are many occluded regions due to the limited field of view. In order to avoid collisions, it is desirable to exploit visibility information. This paper proposes a safe navigation scheme to reduce collision risk considering occluded dynamic obstacles. The robot's motion is controlled by the hybrid control scheme. The possibility of collision is dually reflected to path planning and speed control. The proposed scheme clearly indicates the structural procedure on how to model and to exploit the risk of navigation. The proposed scheme is experimentally tested in a real office building. The experimental results show that the robot moves along the safe path to obtain sufficient field of view. In addition, safe speed constraints are applied in motion control. It is experimentally verified that a robot safely navigates in dynamic indoor environment by adopting the proposed scheme.