An architecture is presented in which distributed taskachieving modules, or behaviors, cooperatively determine a mobile robot's path by voting for each of various possible actions. An arbiter then performs command fusion and selects that action which best satisfies the prioritized goals of the system, as expressed by these votes, without the need to average commands. Command fusion allows multiple goals and constraints to be considered simultaneously. Examples of implemented systems are given, and future research directions in command fusion are discussed.
Data association is the process of relating features observed in the environment to features viewed previously or to features in a map. Correct feature association is essential for mobile robot navigation as it allows the robot to determine its location relative to the features it observes. This paper presents a graph theoretic method that is applicable to data association problems where the features are observed via a batch process. Batch observations (e.g., scanning laser, radar, video) detect a set of features simultaneously or with sufficiently small temporal difference that, with motion compensation, the features can be represented with precise relative coordinates. This data association method is described in the context of two possible navigation applications: metric map building with simultaneous localisation, and topological map based localisation. Experimental results are presented using an indoor mobile robot with a 2D scanning laser sensor. Given two scans from different unknown locations, the features common to both scans are mapped to each other and the relative change in pose (position and orientation) of the vehicle between the two scans is obtained.
We present a set of architectural concepts which address the needs for integrating high-level planning activities with lower-level reactive or participatory behaviors. Based on lessons learned from our experience with a hierarchical architecture for autonomous crosscountry navigation, we have come to recognize various pitfalls that may arise from the misuse of abstraction. Consequently, we have adopted a new approach which emphasizes the minimization of information loss both within and between system layers. This change in perspective has allowed us to greatly enhance the overall capabilities and performance of our system. I.
Absh.act--In this paper, we describe a core system for autonomous navigation in outdoor natural terrain. The system consists of three parts: a perception module that processes range images to identify untraversable regions of the terrain, a local map management module that maintains a representation of the environment in the vicinity of the vehicle, and a planning module that issues commands to the vehicle controller. We illustrate our approach by an experiment in which a vehicle travelled autonomously for one kilometer through unmapped cross-country terrain.
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