A Survey of Mobile Robot Navigation Methods Using Ultrasonic Sensors

摘要

Successful navigation is one of the most difficult tasks for a mobile robot to undertake. In this paper, we survey a number of published mobile robot navigation schemes that make use of ultrasonic sensors. Ultrasonic sensors were selected as the basis for comparison because of their widespread availability and relatively low cost. The specific approach for this survey is to summarize the published navigation methods that appear to have the most applicability to use in a small mobile robot. This includes summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of the approach, as described by the authors, and assigning relative weights to each method. The highest-ranking methods are selected for simulation to further differentiate between the relative performances of each method. Three of the most promising methods are then implemented on a mobile robot and tested. Finally, we have included our recommendations concerning the suitability of each of the implemented navigation methods for a particular task.