Motion Control Based on Fuzzy Potential Method for Autonomous Mobile Robot with Omnidirectional Vision

Abstract

This study aims at the construction of the control system to have a robot approach to an object and move to an objective point. The designed autonomous mobile robots are equipped with an omni-directional camera for a sensory system. These cameras provide precise directional information, but suffer from much noise on distance, since there are visual noises in dynamical environment. To cope with these noises the fuzzy control theory is adopted. The rules for going to an object, wraparound and obstacle avoidance are represented by Potential Membership Functions (PMF) , and the rules are merged by fuzzy operation, so that an agreement point of each rule can be found well. The characteristics of PMF are easy to understand intuitively, since the horizontal axis is based on direction and the grade represents the priority of the direction. Additionally because PMF includes the potential factor, it is possible to use the grade for the desired strength against the direction. To apply this grade for the speed element, the robot is able to decrease the speed naturally near the obstacles. The usefulness of this control system is investigated theoretically and experimentally.