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Robot Motion Planning in Unknown Environments Using Neural Networks


Author(s) : Mark H. Overmars Joost N. Kok Arno J. Knobbe, 
Publisher : N/A
Publication Date : 1995
ISSN : N/A
Abstract : Abstract. We present two approaches to the motion planning problem for car-like robots using an extended Kohonen Self-Organizing Map (SOM). No prior knowledge about the positions of obstacles is assumed. We incrementally build a path from the starting point of the robot towards the goal, using the SOM as a situation-action map. The first approach uses a trial and error strategy to train the SOM. This method is simple but is not always able to escape from dead-end situations. As an improvement a new training-algorithm is proposed that uses edge detection on the visible objects to generate possible motions. Backtracking is used to choose from different possibilities. Experiments show that this new method realizes a considerable increase in performance and speed. 1,