Autonomous Ground Navigation in Highly Constrained Spaces: Lessons Learned From the Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation Challenge at ICRA 2022 [Competitions]

The Benchmark Autonomous Robot Navigation (BARN) Challenge took place at the 2022 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA), in Philadelphia, PA, USA. aim of challenge was to evaluate state-of-the-art autonomous ground navigation systems for moving robots through highly constrained environments a safe efficient manner. Specifically, task navigate standardized differential drive robot from predefined start location goal as quickly possible without colliding with any obstacles, both simulation real world. Five teams all over world participated qualifying competition, three which were invited compete one another set physical obstacle courses conference center Philadelphia. competition results suggest that spaces, despite seeming simple experienced roboticists, is actually far being solved problem. In this article, we discuss challenge, approaches used by top winning teams, lessons learned direct future research.