<p>For a Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) embedded devices such as Android smartphone to be used as a sole controller and sensor pack on a mobile robot for autonomous navigation, the challenge is in addressing the range-based information for navigation. We present a lightweight technique for using in-built camera of COTS device to render collision-free navigation based on simple image manipulations. The heavy computations needed for range estimation and optimization are separated out in the form of image masks that are computed offline. The functioning of the proposed navigator is validated through multiple physics-based simulations and experiments with the mobile robot having an Android smartphone. The result is a plug-in autonomous navigator for embedded solutions that facilitates a faster development cycle of autonomous robots.</p>