A Novel Frontier-Based Exploration Algorithm for Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper aims to bring a novel approach to the exploration paradigm of mobile robots. Consequently, it uses the frontier-exploration method alongside a utility function in order to determine new goals to be achieved by the robot. The proposed approach was implemented using the Robot Operating System as the middleware, and makes use of several packages for, e.g., mapping and navigation. The algorithm implemented in this paper was motivated by the original work on frontier exploration developed by Yamauchi [1] as well as the more recent development, e.g., histogram-based frontier exploration. In addition, this paper aims to include additional parameters in order to enhance the decisions made by the exploration algorithm.