Function sector based real-time autonomous navigation for outdoor mobile robots equipped with laser scanners

A new concept named ¿function sector¿ is proposed in this paper, aiming to give an efficient implementation for the laser based autonomous navigation of mobile robots under complex outdoor terrain conditions. First, one laser scan can be partitioned into two kinds of function sectors: ¿Guidance sector¿ and ¿inspecting sector¿. Then, the function sectors are reconstructed following a new reconstruction strategy to form a virtual guidance scan, while combining the 2.5D information into account. Finally, an improved Angle Potential Field Method is applied on the virtual guidance scan to generate the navigation orders. The new algorithm is tested on a mobile robot, and the experimental results prove the distinguishing validity of our method explicitly.