KEYWORDS: Mobile robot, road roundabout, path planning, laser range finder, vision system, robot path simulation in MATLAB
ABSTRACT: The aim of this research is to develop a robust navigation system for mobile robot in a road roundabout setting based on a simulated data via a virtual laser range finder (LRF) and vision system. A novel algorithm that combines with the modeled LRF and vision system was proposed to detect the open space area of a road roundabout. To assess the capability of mobile robot in the tracking of the pre-planned path in a roundabout setting, a simulation study for the navigation of a mobile robot system based on the developed algorithm was performed using MATLAB computational platform. In this simulation, a grid map of a road roundabout environment was created and was subsequently used in the selection of most optimum travelling path, considering the respective road traffic rules. The effectiveness of the navigation system was evaluated taking into account obstacles in the mobile robot's working environment. From the simulation results, it is verified that the performance of the proposed algorithm is excellent and that the mobile robot is able to track the best path from the selected start position to the goal point even in the presence of the obstacles.
