Robot Navigation by Light

The ability to return to a base location is crucial for moving animals; so it is for mobile robots. Insects like bees and ants achieve this task by a combination of different mechanisms: coarsegrained dead-reckoning, using a global reference frame such as the sun, takes them back close to their nest. Once near the desired location, either a search behaviour (ants) or a navigation by local landmarks (bees) is initiated and takes the animal home. We present a navigation system for a mobile robot that shows similarities to this solution. Using a distant light source (the sun, for example), the robot is able to return back to base within about 10% of the total distance travelled. The robot then switches to a finegrained local navigation, exploiting the structure of its environment and returns to its base by means of local landmarks. 1 Presented at the European Conference on Artificial Life, ECAL 1993, Brussels 24.- 26.5.1993. 1 Introduction Animals move around their niche, and as a con..