Real-time navigation of mobile robots in problems of border patrolling and avoiding collisions with moving and deforming obstacles

We present a sliding mode based strategy for a unicycle-like robot navigation and guidance. The proposed navigation law is applied to the problems of patrolling the border of a moving and deforming domain and reaching a target through a dynamic environment cluttered with moving obstacles. Mathematically rigorous analysis of the proposed approach is provided. The convergence and performance of the algorithm is demonstrated via experiments with real robots and extensive computer simulation. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.