Autonomous Mobile Robot Navigation using Artificial Immune System

摘要

The principles of the Artificial Immune System (AIS) have been applied to a wide range of applications including that of robotics. Most of the research carried out so far has been based on either of the two prominent AIS models viz. the Clonal selection model and the Idiotypic model. In this paper we present an AIS based mechanism for the navigation of an autonomous mobile robot by blending both these models. This hybrid mechanism was tested on a real robot situated in an unknown environment comprising obstacles and unfavourable conditions. The main objective of the robot was to discover safe zones within the environment. An inherent pain is generated within the robot as and when it encounters unfavorable situation. The AIS within the robot uses the values reported by the on-board sensors as an antigen and the reduction in pain as a reward to generate a repertoire of antibodies or actions using the Clonal Selection model. These learned antibodies form an Idiotypic network which triggers the appropriate antibodies on-demand to facilitate navigation towards the goal. The results obtained in different test cases suggest that the proposed model is viable and able to cope up with different environmental conditions.