Smooth and Safe Nearness-Diagram (SSND) Navigation for Autonomous Mobile Robots

Abstract

This paper addresses further enhancements of the earlier developed Smooth Nearness-Diagram Navigation (SND) method for mobile robots moving in complex and cluttered environments. The enhanced method, entitled SSND, improves the safety of paths generated by the SND and solves the problem of trapping the robot in narrow corridors, where the difference in the number of threats on its sides is high. This is achieved by adjusting the difference in the number of obstacles on the two sides of the robot heading direction. The power of our method is demonstrated by simulation results.