An Obstacle Avoidance Method based on Non-Radial Arrangement of Distance Sensors for Vacuum Cleaning Robot

Vacuum cleaning robots are used more and more widely in household environments. Due to the manner of using distance sensors, most conventional cleaning robots cannot completely avoid collision with environments when cleaning rooms. This paper proposes to arrange the distance sensors non-radially. Then an obstacle avoidance method is proposed to realize fully collision-free navigation for a cleaning robot which only using a small amount of low-cost sensors. The sensors' installation position is optimized to make the robot perceive more extensive area and have sufficient reaction time to avoid obstacles. A local grid map describing the area's traversability in front of the robot is created, based on which an obstacle avoidance method is presented. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. Further research on real robot will help vacuum cleaning robots improve their navigation performance in real applications.