A robot needs to "know" where it is at all times (continuously recalculating and reorienting). A robot needs to be able to decide at any time to head to a particular location and then to be able to quickly decide the fastest or best route to that location. This, combined with path and position tracking, feature detection and obstacle avoidance, is navigation. The Personal Robot Navigator introduces room and feature mapping and a unique path node technique for assisting robots in successfully and autonomously navigating known spaces.
Those who buy the book expecting technical discussions on wiring the sensors --- and sample program code --- will likely be disappointed. There are certainly good books available for that level of detail. On the other hand, I would hope that those same readers may find useful ideas and approaches in the book that they didn't expect --- and go ahead and build the full navigating robot we describe.
Our overall objective for The Personal Robot Navigator (book and simulation software) is to broaden the interest of a larger public in "robot navigation" issues --- a "how things work" book for one approach to robot navigation.
Written by: Merl K. Miller, Nels Winkless, Joe Bosworth, Nelson B. Winkless, Joseph H. Bosworth, & Kent Phelps
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