Path-Following and Collision-Avoidance Controls of a Robot in a Large Building with One or More Elevators

Abstract

For planning a robot’s path inside a large building with one or more elevators, we develop a topological map, called the building Voronoi graph. Using the building Voronoi graph, the robot finds the shortest path to the goal and follows the path. In the case where the robot detects an object with arbitrary shapes (e.g., human) while following the path, the robot avoids the object utilizing reactive control laws. The proposed reactive collision-avoidance control is unique in considering collision avoidance with map environments as well as (moving or static) objects having arbitrary shapes. As far as we know, our paper is novel in addressing how to make the robot follow the building Voronoi graph, while avoiding collision with map environments as well as objects with arbitrary shapes.