Sensor-based autonomous robot navigation under unknown environments with grid map representation

Real-time navigation and mapping of an autonomous robot is one of the major challenges in intelligent robot systems. In this paper, a novel sensor-based biologically inspired neural network algorithm to real-time collision-free navigation and mapping of an autonomous mobile robot in a completely unknown environment is proposed. A local map composed of square grids is built up through the proposed neural dynamics for robot navigation with restricted incoming sensory information. With equipped sensors, the robot can only sense a limited reading range of surroundings with grid map representation. According to the measured sensory information, an accurate map with grid representation of the robot with local environment is dynamically built for the robot navigation. The real-time robot motion is planned through the varying neural activity landscape, which represents the dynamic environment. The proposed model for autonomous robot navigation and mapping is capable of planning a real-time reasonable trajectory of an autonomous robot. Simulation and comparison studies are presented to demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed methodology that concurrently performs collision-free navigation and mapping of an intelligent robot.