Sensor-Fusion Based Navigation for Autonomous Mobile Robot

Navigation systems are developing rapidly; nevertheless, tasks are becoming more complex, significantly increasing the number of challenges for robotic systems. Navigation can be separated into global and local navigation. While global navigation works according to predefined data about the environment, local navigation uses sensory data to dynamically react and adjust the trajectory. Tasks are becoming more complex with the addition of dynamic obstacles, multiple robots, or, in some cases, inspection of places that are not physically reachable by humans. Cognitive tasks require not only detecting an object but also evaluating it without direct recognition. For this purpose, sensor fusion methods are employed. However, sensors of different physical nature sometimes cannot directly extract required information. As a result, AI methods are becoming increasingly popular for evaluating acquired information and for controlling and generating robot trajectories. In this work, a review of sensors for mobile robot localization is presented by comparing them and listing advantages and disadvantages of their combinations. Also, integration with path-planning methods is looked into. Moreover, sensor fusion methods are analyzed and evaluated. Furthermore, a concept for channel robot navigation, designed based on the research literature, is presented. Lastly, discussion and conclusions are drawn.