A mobile computing approach for navigation purposes

Abstract

The mobile computing technology has been rapidly increased in the past decade; however there still exist some important constraints which complicate the use of mobile information systems. The limited resources on the mobile computing would restrict some features that are available on the traditional computing technology. In almost all previous works it is assumed that the moving object cruises within a fixed altitude layer, with a fixed target point, and its velocity is predefined. In addition, accessibility to up-to-date knowledge of the whole mobile users and a global time frame are prerequisite. The lack of two last conditions in a mobile environment is our assumptions. In this article we suggest an idea based on space and time partitioning in order to provide a paradigm that treats moving objects in mobile GIS environment. A method for finding collision-free path based on the divide and conquer idea is proposed. The method is, to divide space-time into small parts and solve the problems recursively and the combination of the solutions solves the original problem. We concentrate here on finding a near optimal collision-free path because of its importance in robot motion planning, intelligent transportation system (ITS), and any mobile autonomous navigation system. © 2006 Springer-Verlag.