Robotic navigation in crowded environments

Abstract

Crowded environments provide significant challenges for autonomous navigation systems. The robot must be fully aware of its surroundings and incorporate this knowledge into its decision-making and planning processes. The purpose of this paper is to outline major challenges that an autonomous navigation system needs to overcome to enable effective navigation in crowded environments such as hospital wards. We will discuss several key components of autonomous navigation systems to include localization and mapping, human-robot interaction, and dynamic object detection.