Autonomous robot path planning in dynamic environment using a new optimization technique inspired by bacterial foraging technique

Path planning is one of the basic and interesting functions for a mobile robot. This paper explores the application of Bacterial Foraging Optimization to the problem of mobile robot navigation to determine the shortest feasible path to move from any current position to the target position in an unknown environment with moving obstacles. It develops a new algorithm based on Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) technique. This algorithm finds a path towards the target and avoiding the obstacles using particles which are randomly distributed on a circle around a robot. The criterion on which it selects the best particle is the distance to the target and the Gaussian cost function of the particle. Then, a high level decision strategy is used for the selection and thus proceeds for the result. It works on local environment by using a simple robot sensor. So, it is free from having generated additional map which adds cost. Furthermore, it can be implemented without requirement to tuning algorithm and complex calculation. To simulate the algorithm, the program is written in C language and the environment is created by OpenGL. To test the efficiency of the proposed technique, results are compared with Basic Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) and another well-known algorithm called Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to give the guarantee that the proposed method gives better and optimal path. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.