Integrated control of autonomous mobile robots

The problem of run time planning and motion control for a mobile robot (Labmate) in the presence of unknown obstacles is addressed, and an integrated control system and a functional architecture to support the planning and control requirements of an autonomous indoor mobile robot are described. The robot must autonomously navigate, in a prescribed motion area, following a generic path specified with few via points, providing small obstacle avoidance capabilities. A set of algorithms and architectural concepts is presented, that shows an attempt for integrating high-level planning activities with low level reactive behaviors. Hierarchical object oriented design methods (HOODS) are used to give better integrated and coordination planning, perception and execution activities, and to improve the efficiency and robustness of the robot systems.