Capability Systems Centre, School of Engineering and Information Technology, UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defense Force Academy, Campbell, ACT, Australia
Capability Systems Centre, School of Engineering and Information Technology, UNSW Canberra at the Australian Defense Force Academy, Campbell, ACT, Australia
Robots that can move autonomously and can make intelligent decisions by perceiving their environments and surrounding objects are known as autonomous mobile robots. Such robots have rapidly moved from laboratories to automated industries to fill a variety of roles in our lives, homes, offices, hospitals, industries, and even on the streets. The interest in mobile robots is growing rapidly, prompting an enormous amount of research over the last 30 years, on critical factors of mobile robots such as locomotion, perception, localization, mapping, ego-motion tracking, and dynamic navigation. This article surveys these essential factors of autonomous mobile robots in terms of mathematical modeling, control issues, and challenging factors. Brief discussions are provided on the fundamentals of these technologies, popular algorithms in comprehensive mode, future challenges, and promising directions to guide the construction of an autonomous mobile robot with high accuracy and effectiveness. Since it is difficult to find complete coverage of those topics in a single location, this article provides a guideline for researchers entering the field or for innovators in the mobile robotics sector. The paper also examines open challenges in indoor mobile robots and identifies potential futures for autonomous mobile robots.
