GenNav: A Generic Indoor Navigation System for any Mobile Robot
This addresses the need for adaptable navigation systems for various mobile robots, but it appears incremental as it builds on existing SLAM and path planning methods.
The paper tackles the problem of creating a generic indoor navigation system for mobile robots by modularizing software and hardware units and using LiDAR for odometry, eliminating the need for dedicated sensors, with results including successful simulation and hardware implementation.
The navigation system is at the heart of any mobile robot it comprises of SLAM and path planning units, which is utilized by the robot to generate a map of the environment, localize itself within it and determine an optimal a path to the destination. This paper describes the conceptualization, development, simulation and hardware implementation of GenNav a generic indoor navigation system for any mobile aerial or ground robot. The generalization is brought about by modularizing and creating independence between the software computation and hardware actuation units by providing an alternate source of odometry from the LiDAR eliminating the requirement for dedicated odometry sensors. The odometry feedback from the LiDAR can be used by the navigation computation unit and the system can be generalized to a wide variety of robots, with different type and orientation of actuators