A NEW CERTAINTY GRID BASED MAPPING AND NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR AN AUTONOMOUS MOBILE ROBOT

A complete Bayesian derivation for a sensor data updating formula for certainty grids is given, and its validity confirmed in a simulation. In the real world this formula alone is less valid because of the spec ular reflection effect, which seriously detracts from the map quality. A simple and practical approach, which greatly enhances the map quali ty in spite of some loss of range information, is proposed to compensa te for this. A new path planning method based on the enhanced map is i mplemented on a mobile robot, and every aspect of the new algorithm is investigated through a series of experiments. The results show the va lidity and usefulness of the proposed approaches, i.e, updating formul ae, specular reflection correction and path planning methods.