Robotics and the World/Task Planning and Navigation

8. Task Planning and Navigation

Task planning for mobile robots usually relies solely on spatial information and on shallow domain knowledge, such as labels attached to objects and places. Although spatial information is necessary for performing basic robot operations (navigation and localization), the use of deeper domain knowledge is pivotal to endow a robot with higher degrees of autonomy and intelligence. Defining specific types of semantic maps is key, which integrates hierarchical spatial information and semantic knowledge. Semantic maps can improve task planning in two ways: extending the capabilities of the planner by reasoning about semantic information, and improving the planning efficiency in large domains. Several experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of solutions in a domain involving robot navigation in a domestic environment.

For any mobile device, the ability to navigate in its environment is one of the most important capabilities of all. Staying operational, i.e. avoiding dangerous situations such as collisions and staying within safe operating conditions (temperature, radiation, exposure to weather, etc.) come first, but if any tasks are to be performed that relate to specific places in the robot environment, navigation is a must. In the following, we will present an overview of the skill of navigation and try to identify the basic blocks of a robot navigation system, types of navigation systems, and closer look at its related building components.

Robot navigation means its ability to determine its own position in its frame of reference and then to plan a path towards some goal location. In order to navigate in its environment, the robot or any another mobility device requires representation i.e. a map of the environment and the ability to interpret that representation. Then we talk about robot which is very useful for college and school students. Navigation can be defined as the combination of the Three fundamental competences: