A simple reactive algorithm for miniature mobile robot navigation in the unknown environment with static obstacles

A simple, efficient and practical obstacle avoidance strategy for miniature mobile robot in the unknown environment is presented. In this paper, a series of virtual circles are approximated and gradually form the influence region based on the information of the unknown obstacle detected by the local sensing of robot. Then the limit cycle differential equations are used to define the robot's transitional trajectories from one influence circle to another which could avoid obstacle. Once no obstacle is detected in the direction of target, the robot escapes the influence circle by adding the limit cycle radius and heads for the target. By means of the experiment, which considers the unknown obstacle, demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed method.