A Behavior-Based Fuzzy Control System for Mobile Robot Navigation: Design and Assessment

Decreasing the number of robot navigation accidents due to slow robot reaction times is still an important research topic. This paper proposes a methodology based on a behavior-based fuzzy control scheme for the path planning of a simulated mobile robot. The behaviors are designed based on fuzzy logic and are integrated to switch between them when necessary during navigation in narrow and unknown environments. To test the proposed methodology, we build a simulation environment in which a mobile robot can navigate in straightforward or curved scenarios by using only a Lidar sensor and the proposed behavior-based control scheme. We tested experiment conditions for each scenario, and we evaluated the performance of the vehicle by analyzing the minimum avoidance distance from the obstacles. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methodology can be used for a mobile robot to react fast enough to successfully avoid obstacles when navigating in narrow and unknown environments at different velocities.