Autonomous navigation of a mobile robot using custom-designed qualitative reasoning VLSI chips and boards

Two types of computer boards including custom-designed VLSI chips have been developed to add a qualitative reasoning capability to the real-time control of autonomous mobile robots. The design and operation of these boards are first described, and an example of their use for the autonomous navigation of a mobile robot is presented. The development of qualitative reasoning schemes emulating human-like navigation in a priori unknown environments is discussed. The efficiency of such schemes, which can consist of as little as a dozen qualitative rules, is illustrated in experiments involving an autonomous mobile robot navigating on the basis of very sparse and inaccurate sensor data