Chapter 6 of 10All chapters
Chapter 6 of 10
Navigation
Knowing where you are.
The core problem
A mobile robot must build a map and locate itself within it at the same time, using noisy sensors. That is SLAM, and it underpins vacuum robots, drones and self-driving cars.
- Wheel odometry drifts, so it must be corrected against landmarks.
- GPS is unavailable indoors and accurate only to metres outdoors.
Path planning
Given a map and a goal, find a route that avoids obstacles and respects how the robot can actually move. A car cannot turn on the spot, which rules out many geometrically valid paths.