Multi Sensor Fusion Based Framework For Efficient Mobile Robot Collision Avoidance and Path Following System

The field of autonomous mobile robotics has recently gained the interests of many researchers. Due to the specific needs required by various applications of mobile robot systems (especially in navigation), designing a real-time obstacle avoidance and path following robot system has become the backbone of controlling robots in unknown environments. Therefore, an efficient collision avoidance and path following methodology is needed to develop an intelligent and effective autonomous mobile robot system. Mobile robots are equipped with various types of sensors (such as GPS, camera, infrared and ultrasonic sensors); these sensors are used to observe the surrounding environment. However, these sensors sometimes fail and have inaccurate readings. Therefore, the integration of sensor fusion will help to solve this dilemma and enhance the overall performance. A new technique for line following and collision avoidance in the mobile robotic systems is introduced. The proposed technique relies on the use of infrared sensors and involves a reasonable level of calculations, to be easily used in real-time control applications. In addition, a fusion model based on fuzzy logic is proposed. Eight distance sensors and a range finder camera are used for the collision avoidance approach, where three ground sensors are used for the line or path following approach. The fuzzy system is composed of nine inputs (which are the eight distance sensors and the camera), two outputs (which are the left and right velocities of the mobile robot’s wheels), and twenty four fuzzy rules for the robot’s movement. Webots Pro simulator is used for modeling the environment and robot to show the ability of the robot to follow a path, detect obstacles, and navigate around them to avoid collision. It also shows that the robot has been successfully following extremely congested curves and has avoided any obstacle that emerged on its path. The proposed methodology which includes the collision avoidance based on fuzzy logic fusion model and line following robot, has been implemented and tested through simulation and real-time experiments. Various scenarios have been presented with static and dynamic obstacles, using one and multiple robots while avoiding obstacles in different shapes and sizes. The proposed methodology reduced the traveled distance of the mobile robot, as well as minimized the energy consumption and the distance between the robot and the obstacle detected as compared to a non-fuzzy logic approach