Navigation of a Differential Wheeled Robot Based on a Type-2 Fuzzy Inference Tree

Abstract

This paper presents a type-2 fuzzy inference tree designed for a differential wheeled mobile robot that navigates in indoor environments. The proposal consists of a controller designed for obstacle avoidance, a controller for path recovery and goal reaching, and a third controller for the real-time selection of behaviors. The system takes as inputs the information provided for a 2D laser range scanner, i.e., the distance of nearby objects to the robot, as well as the robot position in space, calculated from mechanical odometry. The real performance is evaluated through metrics such as clearance, path smoothness, path length, travel time and success rate. The experimental results allow us to demonstrate an appropriate performance of our proposal for the navigation task, with a higher efficiency than the reference methods taken from the state of the art.

Keywords

• indoor navigation
• differential wheeled mobile robot
• type-2 fuzzy inference tree
• 2D laser range scanner
• mechanical odometry
• ROS