Navigation of a Mobile Robot in Outdoor Environments

Implementation of an outdoor navigation system for a mobile robot is described in this paper. In this system, two optical encoders are used to perform dead-reckoning for the mobile robot. Meanwhile, an electronic compass and a GPS receiver are used for self-localization of the robot. Fusing the sensory data from dead-reckoning and self-localization, position and orientation of the robot can be determined accurately. Communication between the robot and the host computer is achieved through GSM modems. In controlling the right and left angular velocities of the robot, a PID control law will be used. For illustration, computer simulation and a practical experiment are presented to show that the outdoor navigation of a mobile robot is feasible, in a convenient and cost-effective manner.