Intelligent Fuzzy Logic based controller scheme for a mobile robot navigation

The unhindered navigation of mobile robots in an unstructured and dynamic environment is constrained by uncertainty, unreliability of input information, and unpredictability issues that plague the sensors and the robot controller. One of the long standing challenges in modern day mobile robotics is instilling the ability and intelligence in robots to autonomously navigate their path, avoiding structured and unstructured obstacles in real-time. An effective way of structuring the navigation path is designing the robot controller by implementing behavioral based approaches. In this project, research work has been carried out on the different fuzzy techniques which can be implemented for the navigation of a wheeled mobile robot, especially in a crowded and unpredictably dynamic environment and in the midst of static as well as dynamic obstacles. In this project, individual robot behaviors and their action coordination are addressed using fuzzy logic. It uses sets of linguistic fuzzy rules to implement expert knowledge in various situations. Later, it has been shown that the fuzzy model of the robot controller far outweighs the traditional algorithm based approach towards design of a robot control system. The proposed fuzzy scheme consists of inputs from an array of sensors located at the front, sides and rear of the mobile robot, which provide information about distances between obstacles to the front, left, right and back of the robot and the fuzzy rule base is run over these inputs to actuate the motion of the left and right wheels of the robot as per the situtation encountered

Design of a Fuzzy Logic Controller for Skid Steer Mobile Robot

The control problem of four-wheeled skid steering mobile robots is quite challenging mainly because the skid steering system is an underactuated system and its mathematical model is highly uncertain. Skid steering configurations employ a differential-drive technique in which the wheels rotation is limited to around one axis and the lack of a steering wheel causes the navigation to be determined by the change of speed in either side of the robot for turning. Equal speed in both sides causes a straight-line motion. However, the implementation of the dead reckoning technique on skid-steer mobile robots will limit the precision of current robot’s position because skid-steer configuration intentionally relies on wheel slippage for normal operation and this possesses some difficulties when implementing motion control using the odometric system. The thesis describes the design of a fuzzy logic controller to compensate the dead reckoning limitation and implementation on a skid-steer mobile robot. The fuzzy controller has two inputs (angle error and distance), two outputs (translational and rotational speed) and 14 rules. These inputs are computed from the dead-reckoning method that is totally reliant on the odometry readings and data are fuzzified to be the inputs of the fuzzy controller. The outputs are the analogue voltages to the left and right motors, which drive the mobile robot. For simplicity, membership functions consisting of triangular and trapezoid shapes have been adopted. The membership functions of the fuzzy sets are chosen by trial-and-error based on experimentation. The heuristic rules control the orientation of the robot according to the information about the distances from the desired positions. The crisp output values from the fuzzy logic controller are decoded and fed into a decision module where the ratios of both sides motor voltage are determined for every smooth change in speed of the motors. To facilitate the implementation of control system, real-time execution is done in an indoor environment. Data acquisition is done in a LABVIEW and a MATLAB control algorithm is called in LABVIEW. A real mobile robot, PUTRABOT2 was used to conduct the experiment. Performance evaluation is observed from the accumulated error in orientation and its trajectory obtained after mapping the information gathered from the real world via odometry sensors. Few features such as the rise time, settling time and peak time of the output responses are analyzed. Comparisons are made between fuzzy logic and PD controllers. Comparative results among these two controllers indicate the superiority of the fuzzy approach with the ability to minimize the position and orientation errors. Moreover, the trajectory accuracy is very high and more reliable in the presence of unreliable odometry readings

A layered fuzzy logic controller for nonholonomic car-like robot

A system for real time navigation of a nonholonomic car-like robot in a dynamic environment consists of two layers is described: a Sugeno-type fuzzy motion planner; and a modified proportional navigation based fuzzy controller. The system philosophy is inspired by human routing when moving between obstacles based on visual information including right and left views to identify the next step to the goal. A Sugeno-type fuzzy motion planner of four inputs one output is introduced to give a clear direction to the robot controller. The second stage is a modified proportional navigation based fuzzy controller based on the proportional navigation guidance law and able to optimize the robot's behavior in real time, i.e. to avoid stationary and moving obstacles in its local environment obeying kinematics constraints. The system has an intelligent combination of two behaviors to cope with obstacle avoidance as well as approaching a target using a proportional navigation path. The system was simulated and tested on different environments with various obstacle distributions. The simulation reveals that the system gives good results for various simple environments

Adaptive neuro-fuzzy technique for autonomous ground vehicle navigation

This article proposes an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) for solving navigation problems of an autonomous ground vehicle (AGV). The system consists of four ANFIS controllers; two of which are used for regulating both the left and right angular velocities of the AGV in order to reach the target position; and other two ANFIS controllers are used for optimal heading adjustment in order to avoid obstacles. The two velocity controllers receive three sensor inputs: front distance (FD); right distance (RD) and left distance (LD) for the low-level motion control. Two heading controllers deploy the angle difference (AD) between the heading of AGV and the angle to the target to choose the optimal direction. The simulation experiments have been carried out under two different scenarios to investigate the feasibility of the proposed ANFIS technique. The simulation results have been presented using MATLAB software package; showing that ANFIS is capable of performing the navigation and path planning task safely and efficiently in a workspace populated with static obstacles

Fuzzy Predictive Controller for Mobile Robot Path Tracking

IFAC Intelligent Components and Instruments for Control Applications, Annecy, France 1997This paper presents a way of implementing a Model Based Predictive Controller (MBPC) for mobile robot path-tracking. The method uses a non-linear model of mobile robot dynamics and thus allows an accurate prediction of the future trajectories. Constraints on the maximum attainable angular velocity is also considered by the algorithm. A fuzzy approach is used to implement the MBPC. The fuzzy controller has been trained using a lookup-table scheme, where the database of fuzzy-rules has been obtained automatically from a set of input-output training patterns, computed with the predictive controller. Experimental results obtained when applying the fuzzy controller to a TRC labmate mobile platform are given in the paper.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TAP95-0307Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TAP96-884C

Realization of reactive control for multi purpose mobile agents

Mobile robots are built for different purposes, have different physical size, shape, mechanics and electronics. They are required to work in real-time, realize more than one goal simultaneously, hence to communicate and cooperate with other agents. The approach proposed in this paper for mobile robot control is reactive and has layered structure that supports multi sensor perception. Potential field method is implemented for both obstacle avoidance and goal tracking. However imaginary forces of the obstacles and of the goal point are separately treated, and then resulting behaviors are fused with the help of the geometry. Proposed control is tested on simulations where different scenarios are studied. Results have confirmed the high performance of the method

Wavefront Propagation and Fuzzy Based Autonomous Navigation

Path planning and obstacle avoidance are the two major issues in any navigation system. Wavefront propagation algorithm, as a good path planner, can be used to determine an optimal path. Obstacle avoidance can be achieved using possibility theory. Combining these two functions enable a robot to autonomously navigate to its destination. This paper presents the approach and results in implementing an autonomous navigation system for an indoor mobile robot. The system developed is based on a laser sensor used to retrieve data to update a two dimensional world model of therobot environment. Waypoints in the path are incorporated into the obstacle avoidance. Features such as ageing of objects and smooth motion planning are implemented to enhance efficiency and also to cater for dynamic environments