Evolutionary Programming-Based Optimal Robust Locomotion Control of Autonomous Mobile Robots

Abstract

Even if the stability of a mobile robot system is guaranteed, this does not imply that its behaviors are satisfactory, or that its trajectories satisfy shortest path, minimum time, minimum energy, and other constraints. To address these concerns, we employ an evolutionary programming (EP) algorithm to obtain the optimal control parameters that govern locomotion control of a mobile robot. The current work focuses on evolving the control parameters used in a robust locomotion controller to obtain time optimal, shortest path, and minimum energy performance. The utility of the procedure is demonstrated by computer simulations. 1 INTRODUCTION Since the first example of a mobile robot, called Shakey, which was developed at Stanford Research Institute in the late 1960s, most researchers in the field have been focusing on navigation, path planning, and real-world modeling. In the early stage of the development of mobile robot systems, conventional analytical motion control methods were used. ...