Bridging the gap between planning and reactivity: a layered architecture for autonomous indoor navigation

This paper deals with the development of a navigation system for a mobile robot designed to accomplish missions inside the building of big organisations, such as hospitals or malls. Useful terminology is first introduced, and followed by a rather detailed presentation of the architecture and overall functioning of the system. The most recent realization of the system is then described in some detail, and its behaviours and functionalities are reported and discussed. Possible directions for future work are outlined, along with open problems that are regarded as the most interesting and challenging for the further development of the system