Reactive navigation of nonholonomic mobile robots in dynamic uncertain environments with moving and deforming obstacles

We present a sliding mode based strategy for navigation of a unicycle-like robot to the target through a dynamic environment cluttered with moving and deforming obstacles. The proposed strategy is based on properly switching between moves to the target in straight lines and sliding-mode based bypasses of enroute obstacles via patrolling their borders at a pre-specified distance. The convergence and performance of the obstacle avoidance algorithm is demonstrated via real-life experiments and computer simulations.