An obstacle avoidance algorithm for mobile robot: the improved weighted safety vector field method

An obstacle avoidance algorithm, the weighted safety vector field (WSVF) method, is presented. In determining the orientation of the mobile robot, the algorithm first computes the primary steering angle for normal manuevering which is derived based on the fuzzy inference rule. To cope with the constrained environments such as corner and hallway, the algorithm then computes the secondary steering angle which is derived based on the fuzzy inference rule. The primary steering angle is used for the normal manuevering whereas the secondary steering angle compensates for the wiggling motion of the mobile robot that occurs frequently at the corner or at the hallway. The presented algorithm has been successfully tested on the simulation example.