Robot navigation in unknown environment with obstacle recognition using laser sensor

Abstract

Robot navigation in unknown and dynamic environments may result in aimless wandering, corner traps and repetitive path loops. To address these issues, this paper presents the solution by comparing the standard deviation of the distance ranges of the obstacles appeared in the robot navigation path. For the similar obstacles, The standard deviations of distance range vectors, obtained from the laser range finder sensor of the robot at similar pose, are very close to each other. Therefore, the measurements of odometer sensor are also combined with the standard deviation to recognize the location of the obstacles. A novel algorithm, with obstacle detection feature, is presented for robot navigation in unknown and dynamic environments. The algorithm checks the similarity of the distance range vectors of the obstacles in the path and uses this information in combination with the odometer measurements to identify the obstacles and their locations. The experimental work is carried out using Gazebo simulator.