Adaptive Dynamic Window Approach for Local Navigation

Local navigation is an essential ability of any mobile robot working in a real-world environment. One of the most commonly used methods for local navigation is the Dynamic Window Approach (DWA), which heavily depends on the settings of the parameters in its cost function. Since the optimal choice of the parameters depends on the environment that may significantly vary and change at any time, the parameters should be chosen dynamically in a data-driven way. To cope with this problem, we propose a novel deep convolutional neural network, which dynamically predicts these parameters considering the sensor readings. The network is trained using a state-of-the art reinforcement learning algorithm. In this way, we combine the power of data-driven learning and the dynamic model of the robot, enabling adaptation to the current environment as well as guaranteeing collision-free movement and smooth trajectories of the mobile robot. The experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the DWA method as well as its recent extension.