Interception of a moving object with a specified approach angle by a wheeled robot: Theory and experiment

This paper presents a vision-based wheeled-robot navigation technique, termed circular navigation guidance (CNG), for the interception of a moving target from a specific angle. The guidance law is not split into path-planning and path-following stages, but is continuously updated based on immediately available information, making it useful even against a manoeuvring target, or where only incomplete information is available to the robot. This is achieved by converting a finite-time navigation problem into one of maintaining a certain geometric condition at all times. Detailed theoretical analysis provides a closed-form solution for the shape of the path the robot takes against a moving target. Experimental results are presented which show that CNG is robust and accurate under real-world conditions against a manoeuvring target.