A Hybrid Collision Avoidance Method for Mobile Robots

This paper proposes a hybrid approach to the problem of collision avoidance for indoor mobile robots. The DWA (short for: model-based dynamic window approach) integrates sensor data from various sensors with information extracted from a map of the environment, to generate collision-free motion. A novel integration rule ensures that with high likelihood, the robot avoids collisions with obstacles not detectable with its sensors, even if it is uncertain about its position. The approach was recently implemented and tested extensively as part of an installation, in which a mobile robot gave interactive tours to visitors of the “Deutsches Museum Bonn.” Here our approach was essential for the success of the entire mission, because a large number of ill-shaped obstacles prohibited the use of purely sensor-based methods for collision avoidance.