A sensor-based navigation for a mobile robot using fuzzy logic and reinforcement learning

The proposed navigator consists of an avoidance behavior and goal-seeking behavior. Two behaviors are independently designed at the design stage and then combined them by a behavior selector at the running stage. A behavior selector using a bistable switching function chooses a behavior at each action step so that the mobile robot can go for the goal position without colliding with obstacles. Fuzzy logic maps the input fuzzy sets representing the mobile robot's state space determined by sensor readings to the output fuzzy sets representing the mobile robot's action space. Fuzzy rule bases are built through the reinforcement learning which requires simple evaluation data rather than thousands of input-output training data. Since the fuzzy rules for each behavior are learned through a reinforcement learning method, the fuzzy rule bases can be easily constructed for more complex environments. In order to find the mobile robot's present state, ultrasonic sensors mounted at the mobile robot are used. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by a series of simulations.>