Intelligent autonomous navigation for mobile robots: spatial concept acquisition and object discrimination

An autonomous system able to construct its own navigation strategy for mobile robots is proposed. The navigation strategy is molded from navigation experiences (succeeding as the robot navigates) according to a classical reinforcement learning procedure. The autonomous system is based on modular hierarchical neural networks. Initially the navigation performance is poor (many collisions occur). Computer simulations show that after a period of learning the autonomous system generates efficient obstacle avoidance and target seeking behaviors. Experiments also offer support for concluding that the autonomous system develops a variety of object discrimination capability and of spatial concepts.