Path following and obstacle avoidance fuzzy controller for mobile indoor robots

This paper provides the design and implementation details of a remotely controlled, battery-powered robot that is able to follow a pre-defined path and to avoid obstacles. The proposed system is divided into three modules for path following, path searching and decision making. Path following controller is responsible for following a pre-defined path, path searching is responsible for returning to that path when the robot leaves that path to avoid an obstacle. The third module is responsible for deciding which of the first two modules to follow. Fuzzy Logic was employed in the proposed system to take the robot's light and ultrasonic sensory data as input and send commands to the robot motors to control the robot's velocity and steering angel. Lego Mindstorms NXT robot was used to realise the proposed design.