The dynamic approach to autonomous robot navigation

Abstract

We present a dynamical systems approach to generate autonomous behavior. For the example of navigation and exploration of an autonomous agent, we develop a dynamical system, that produces classical control-type behaviors as well as complex behavioral sequences and discrete behavior selections. Examples for the control-type behaviors that are generated are obstacle avoidance, position estimation, recalibration and target acquisition. Examples for the complex behaviors are adaptive exploration, adaptive path planning, adaptive target selection and searching. The approach works with continuous differential equations throughout and combines the advantages of the formulation as a classical control problem and those of the formulation as an algorithmic problem.