Local map design and task function planning for mobile robots

This paper is mainly concerned with task function planning in the context of mobile robotics. A task function is basically defined as a closed loop regulation mechanism referenced with respect to a coherent set of map primitives called local map. Task function planning is practically carried out in two steps, First, given an environment model and a sensor model, a geometric path is computed from both the intermediate concept of “configuration uncertainty potential” and the list of all the map primitives used by the vehicle to estimate its localization. Such a path represents a compromise between the length, the simplicity of vehicle control and the tracking accuracy. Then, using an efficient data analysis method, a local map sequence is dynamically computed from the previous path. Finally, task function planning consists in attaching to each local map a closed loop regulation mechanism (task function) so that the complete robot mission can be ensured by successively refering to each local map