An Algorithm for Indoor Robot Path Planning Using Low-Cost IR Sensor Array System

Abstract

In this paper, a new algorithm for indoor robot path planning is presented. The robot localization problem is solved by using an IR transmitter fixed on the robot and a low-cost IR sensor array distributed regularly in the environment. The robot location depends on a group of IR receiver sensors that sense the IR transmitter signal. The location of each IR receiver sensor depends on it is the location in the IR array and the robot location is estimated from the locations of the sensed IR receiver sensors. The localization process is applied using the modified binary search algorithm to scan the IR array and the robot location is computed by applying the centroid algorithm on the locations of the sensed IR receivers. A virtual path from the robot location to the target point is drawn using the tangent visible graph algorithm. A chain of the IR receivers within the sensing range of the virtual path is activated to be scan through the robot moves to the target. This process helps in reducing the computation time of the robot localization. At each step of the robot movement, it is direction is corrected dependent on the locations of the two next IR sensors in the chain of the active IR receivers. The simulation results for different types of IR array environments are shown good performance for this algorithm.