Nsv. Rao, ROBOT NAVIGATION IN UNKNOWN GENERALIZED POLYGONAL TERRAINS USING VISION SENSORS, IEEE transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, 25(6), 1995, pp. 947-962
Citations number
37
Categorie Soggetti
Controlo Theory & Cybernetics","Computer Science Cybernetics","Engineering, Eletrical & Electronic
This paper considers the problem of navigating a point robot in an unk
nown two-dimensional terrain populated by disjoint generalized polygon
al obstacles. A generalized polygon consists of a connected sequence o
f circular arcs and straight-line segments. The terrain model is not k
nown a priori, but the robot is equipped with a vision sensor. A discr
ete vision sensor detects all visible (from a single position) portion
s of the obstacle boundaries in a single scan operation. The navigatio
n problem deals with moving the robot through the terrain from a sourc
e position to a destination position, and the terrain model acquisitio
n problem deals with autonomously building a model of the terrain. A c
omplete solution to either problem is shown to require an infinite num
ber of scan operations in cusp regions formed by a pair of convex and
concave obstacle edges. Either problem is considered solved with a pre
cision epsilon if the points that have not been scanned are those in a
cusp region with a clearance less than epsilon from two obstacle edge
s. Three methods are proposed to solve both problems with a precision
epsilon based on extensions of the generalized visibility graph, the g
eneralized Voronoi diagram, and the trapezoidal decomposition. Then si
mplified versions of these structures are proposed to exactly solve th
e navigation and terrain model acquisition problems using a continuous
vision sensor that detects all visible obstacle boundaries as the rob
ot navigates along a path.