Fuzzy Tracking Methods for Mobile Robots

This paper deals with the applications to the mobile robot tracking of references, which include: This document was created with FrameMaker 4.0.4 a) tracking of explicit previously defined paths, using dead reckoning and navigation sensors. b) tracking of walls and other natural features in the environment using external sensors. In a) the tracking objective is to generate the control commands for the vehicle to follow the previously defined path by taking into account the actual position and the constraints imposed by the vehicle and its lower level motion controllers. Fuzzy logic can be used both to supervise conventional path trackers, as proposed in [1], and for direct fuzzy control. This Chapter considers the second case. That is, the fuzzy controller directly generates the steering command from the sensor inputs [2]. The approach b) is related with fuzzy reactive approaches for mobile robot navigation. In this case the controller inputs are provided by the external sensors. The chapter is organized as follows. The following section is devoted to fuzzy direct explicit path tracking. The section includes the description of the method and the application to the mobile robot RAM-1. The next section is related to reactive navigation. Fuzzy tracking is considered in the framework of a behavior based architecture for mobile robot control. The application of this method to the AURORA mobile robot is considered in the next section. The two last sections of the Chapter are for the Conclusions and References. 25.2. FUZZY EXPLICIT PATH TRACKING The application of fuzzy control methods to solve the tracking of explicit paths is motivated by difficulties to apply in real time realistic control laws derived from complex kinematics and dynamic models. Explicit path tracking is ..