Robust collision avoidance in unknown domestic environments

Abstract

Service robots operating in domestic indoor environments must be endowed with a safe collision avoidance and navigation method that is reactive enough to avoid contacts with the furniture of the apartment and humans that suddenly appear in front of the robot. Moreover, the method should be local, i.e. should not need a predefined map of the environment. In this paper we describe a navigation and collision avoidance method which is all of that: safe, fast, and local. Based on a geometric grid representation which is derived from the laser range finder of our domestic robot, a path to the next target point is found by employing A*. The obstacles which are used in the local map of the robot are extended depending on the speed the robot travels at. We compute a triangular area in front of the robot which is guaranteed to be free of obstacles. This triangle serves as the space of feasible solutions when searching for the next drive commands. With this triangle, we are able to decouple the path search from the search for drive commands, which tremendously decreases the complexity. We used the proposed method for several years in RoboCup@Home where it was a key factor to our success in the competitions. © 2010 Springer.