Map-based navigation in mobile robots:: II. A review of map-learning and path-planning strategies

This article reviews map-learning and path-planning strategies within the context of map-based navigation in mobile robots. Concerning map-learning, it distinguishes metric maps from topological maps and describes procedures that help maintain the coherency of these maps. Concerning path-planning, it distinguishes continuous from discretized spaces and describes procedures applicable when the execution of a plan fails. It insists on the need for an integrated conception of such procedures, which must be tightly tailored to the specific robot that is used, notably to the capacities and limitations of its sensory-motor equipment, and to the specific environment that is experienced. A hierarchy of navigation strategies is outlined in the discussion, together with the sort of adaptive capacities each affords to cope with unexpected obstacles or dangers encountered on an animat or robot’s way to its goal.