A biologically inspired homeostatic motion controller for autonomous mobile robots

This paper proposes an autonomous motion controller for mobile robots. It combines a biologically inspired motion planner and a nonlinear feedback controller in order to make a simple and practical motion controller in natural unknown environments. The motion planner part is designed in the frame of behavior-based scheme and adopts the biological concept "homeostasis". It plays the role of determining desired temporal target posture and modifying controller\´s gain parameters. The other nonlinear controller part drives the robot to the given target posture from the planner. As a result, the stable nonlinear feedback controller in ideal obstacle free space becomes practical one in natural environments constrained by obstacles. The proposed controller is simple mainly due to its behavior-based characteristics and stable due to the feedback controller considering robot\´s physical constraints. Simulated results and some experimental feature for autonomous navigation of the differential drive mobile robot, named "MARI", are shown for the present.