Self-contained, ultrasonic sensor-based mobility generation for differential drive UGVs

This paper suggests a self-contained, mobility system for velocity controlled, differential drive robots in unknown cluttered environments. The system tackles the use of ultrasonic sensing at the servo-level to generate motion. It can, in real-time, convert the raw measurements from the onboard ultrasonic sensors to a control signal that safely propels the robot to its target. The structure uses a safety-based, subjective representation of the environment to synthesize the control signal. This significantly relaxes the burden of having to accurately localize the components of the environment. Moreover, the structure can decouple the computational burden from the size of the environment representation, hence enabling real-time servo-level navigation. The structure is implemented and thoroughly tested on the X80 mobile robot platform using only one out of the six ultrasonic sensors the robot has (the front sensor). The test consistently demonstrated that the robot can safely reach its target, from the first attempt, along a well-behaved trajectory using well-behaved control signals.