A BEAM-Inspired Lyapunov-Based Strategy for Obstacle Avoidance and Target-Seeking

We consider a hypothetical dimensionless robot operating in an unknown, obstacle-ridden planar environment. The robot is capable of rotational and translational motion, and is equipped with a limited sensor suite that includes a single short-range monocular obstacle sensor and finite-range target sensor. A purely analog robotic motion control scheme is developed for obstacle avoidance and target-seeking using an innovative dynamical systems architecture that incorporates a nonlinear controller derived using Lyapunov techniques. A possible application is in the control of extremely lightweight autonomous machines in the style of Braitenberg vehicles or Tilden´s BEAM robots. Simulations and animations (available at the URL indicated in the Simulations Section) are provided.