Developing an Integrated Software Environment for Mobile Robot Navigation and Control

A flexible modular robotic software environment based on the popular MRPT toolkit is reported in this paper that is able to integrate path planning, navigation and control algorithms easily from several sources. The different modules (which are responsible for SLAM, trajectory tracking, sensor and actuator handling, visualization etc.) communicate with each other via a carefully developed network based protocol set that ensures transparency and robust operation. The system can also be used as a simulation environment and it is capable of comparative benchmarking of different navigation algorithms. Laser scanner based map building and navigation of an autonomous wheelchair is shown as application examples to illustrate the features of the developed software environment.