Design of a two-level fuzzy controller for a reactive miniature mobile robot

Abstract

This paper describes the design and implementation of the fuzzy control system for a small, reactive mobile robot which operates in an unknown, unpredictable, and dynamic environment. A modular, two-level fuzzy controller is used for navigation, obstacle avoidance, and target tracking. The fuzzy controller provides the mechanism for fusing noisy sensor data from multiple sensors which may present conflicting information. Competing behaviors of target tracking and obstacle avoidance are combined in a way that serves both functions, thereby resulting in an emergent intelligent behavior of the robot controller. The efficiency of the two-level fuzzy controller is demonstrated by implementing the system on a small mobile robot with two onboard processors and limited memory (2K per processor).<>