Bat-Inspired Robot Navigation

Abstract

A key objective of Robotics is the autonomous navigation of mobile robots through an obstacle field. Inspired by echolocating bats, we developed a two-part navigation system consisting of obstacle detection through echolocation and motion planning. The first part relies upon a binaural sonar system, which emits ultrasonic pulses and then determines the interaural level difference (ILD) of the returning echoes to infer obstacle locations. Next, the Openspace motion planner computes the best direction of travel based on the locations of the target and the detected obstacles. We implemented this navigation system on a mobile platform, which repeatedly computes the safest direction of travel and moves accordingly, ultimately generating a real-time path to the goal.