Page 7 - Autonomous Mobile Robots

Preface

The creation of a truly autonomous and intelligent system — one that can sense,
learn from, and interact with its environment, one that can integrate seamlessly
into the day-to-day lives of humans — has ever been the motivating factor
behind the huge body of work on artificial intelligence, control theory and
robotics, autonomous (land, sea, and air) vehicles, and numerous other discip-
lines. The technology involved is highly complex and multidisciplinary, posing
immense challenges for researchers at both the module and system integra-
tion levels. Despite the innumerable hurdles, the research community has, as a
whole, made great progress in recent years. This is evidenced by technological
leaps and innovations in the areas of sensing and sensor fusion, modeling and
control, map building and path planning, artificial intelligence and decision
making, and system architecture design, spurred on by advances in related
areas of communications, machine processing, networking, and information
technology.
Autonomous systems are gradually becoming a part of our way of life,
whether we consciously perceive it or not. The increased use of intelligent
robotic systems in current indoor and outdoor applications bears testimony
to the efforts made by researchers on all fronts. Mobile systems have greater
autonomy than before, and new applications abound — ranging from fact-
ory transport systems, airport transport systems, road/vehicular systems, to
military applications, automated patrol systems, homeland security surveil-
lance, and rescue operations. While most conventional autonomous systems
are self-contained in the sense that all their sensors, actuators, and computers
are on board, it is envisioned that more and more will evolve to become open net-
worked systems with distributed processing power, sensors (e.g., GPS, cameras,
microphones, and landmarks), and actuators.
It is generally agreed that an autonomous system consists primarily of the
following four distinct yet interconnected modules:
(i) Sensors and Sensor Fusion
(ii) Modeling and Control
(iii) Map Building and Path Planning
(iv) Decision Making and Autonomy

These modules are integrated and influenced by the system architecture design
for different applications.

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© 2006 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

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