RSSI-based mobile robot navigation in grid-pattern wireless sensor network

Mobile robot navigation in smart environment has always been one of the most critical issues in robot research. Deployment of wireless sensor network (WSN) in new environment can provide the mobile robot with efficient aid of navigation and tracking. In this paper, we present a feasible scheme of WSN-aided mobile robot navigation which includes initial localization of mobile robot, orientation adjustment, network-layer path planning, motion tracking and correction based on RSSI in Grid-pattern WSN. Unlike other methods of robot navigation which might require a complex and intelligent robotic system for mapping and path planning, the aim of our method is to transfer complex environment detection and calculation from the robot to network and to decrease the reliance of intelligence on the robot itself. Experimental result shows that our proposed scheme is well-performed and can effectively navigate the robot equipped only with simply sensors for communication and obstacle avoidance.