On the sensor-based navigation by changing a direction to follow an encountered obstacle

In the last decade, many sensor-based navigation algorithms have been proposed. In the sensor-based navigation, a robot arrives at its goal globally while avoiding neighbor obstacles locally by sensor information. In every environment, a mobile robot arrives at its goal surely. However if an environment has complicated shape, a mobile robot sometimes joins a loop and consequently runs long until its goal. In general, a loop consists of routes which a robot follows obstacles in the same direction. Nevertheless in most previous algorithms, a mobile robot follows an encountered obstacle in a constant direction. On this observation, a robot is exempted from participation of a loop by reversing a direction to follow an obstacle. The authors discuss algorithms in which the following direction is alternatively changed. This strategy has been adopted by cockroaches living in a natural environment. They then propose algorithms in which the following direction is randomly reversed. Then they compare paths generated by constant, alternative, and random selections in Bug2 and Classl under a graphics simulator for 2D complicated environments.