Centralized fuzzy behavior control for robot navigation

Simplicity, flexibility, and responsiveness are among the reasons that behavior fuzzy control in robotic systems is popular. One of the major problems faced in the design of behavior based fuzzy control systems for mobile robots is that of resolving conflicts between different behaviors when the behaviors are given full autonomy, i.e., the control is decentralized. Under this framework the behaviors are forced to compete for robot control whereby some of the behaviors must lose the competition and hence be ignored by the robot. By ignoring the behaviors that lost in the competition, the control system becomes less robust and can lead the robot to undesired reactions. This paper presents a new method of designing fuzzy behavior control systems for robotic navigation that honors all behaviors. The control system is centralized and it takes into consideration the interests of all behaviors. Each behavior is designed to fire several proposals on how to react to a given situation. There is a central command unit that takes the proposals from all behaviors in the system and selects a single proposal that best meets the demands of all behaviors in the system. This structure allows the behavioral fusion to be robust in the sense that under all circumstances, each behavior will be honored and the robot reactions will satisfy the requirements of each behavior.