Research article

Robust navigation system based on RFID

transponder barriers for the interactive
behavior-operated shopping trolley (InBOT)
Michael Göller, Florian Steinhardt, Thilo Kerscher, J. Marius Zöllner and Rüdiger Dillmann
FZI – Research Center for Information Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a navigation system designed for highly dynamic environments which is independent from a
metrically exact global map.
Design/methodology/approach – A navigation system is developed to cope with highly dynamic environments. Here, this refers especially to
changes in the environment itself, like the daily deployment or removal of advertisements or special offers in a supermarket. The navigation system is
split into a global part, relying on non-concealable artificial landmarks and a local part containing a behavior-based control using a dynamic potential
field approach. The required information are the definitively static structures and the actual sensor information only.
Findings – The system proved to be useful in environments that change frequently and where the presence of many people complicates the perception
of landmarks.
Practical implications – The presented navigation system is robust against changes in the environment and provides reliable collision avoidance
capabilities.
Originality/value – It is a useful navigation system for autonomous robots dedicated to frequently changing and populated environments.

Keywords Robotics, Navigation, Control applications

Paper type Research paper

1. The application of InBOT
The interactive behavior-operated shopping trolley (InBOT,
Figure 1) is an approach to transfer state of the art robotics
technology into human everyday environments. InBOT
addresses several everyday problems. Among other
possibilities this means helping the customer to find the
desired products without extensive search in big
supermarkets, or relieving the customer from the burden of
pushing the shopping cart using his own force all the time,
especially if the cart is heavily loaded or the customer is
elderly or handicapped. Especially, for these groups of
customers it could be very interesting that InBOT is able to
avoid collisions on its own, even with objects that are moving
themselves. InBOT’s ability to perform special local
maneuvers and a flexible task-planner round off the
capabilities. It provides four different modes of operation to
assist the user in the best way: InBOT can be steered like an
ordinary shopping cart by the haptic handle (Göller et al.,
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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2009a), it can follow or lead the user, and finally it can be
commanded to act independently.
The primary challenge InBOT has to cope with is highly
dynamic environments in the described scenario. This
includes on the one hand the presence of lots of dynamic
objects, which constrain local navigation, but on the other
hand that the spatial arrangement of the environment changes
frequently. Advertisements or special offers are placed or
removed daily. This is a great challenge to mobile robots
because as result they cannot rely on a global metrical map or
have to build this map several times a day even while the shop
is open and customers are around, in the worst case. InBOT
aims to solve this problem by being independent from a global
metrical map. A global topological map based on the
definitively static structures in combination with a local map
of the visible area has to be sufficient. The different
topological areas are discriminated by occlusion-free
radio-frequency identification (RFID) transponder barriers.
A rough overview over the main components of InBOT is
shown in Figure 2.
The navigation system consists of two main parts (Figure 3),
the task planner and the local navigation. First of all global
planning and topological navigation take place. Here, the
commands of the user are analyzed and the task planner

Industrial Robot: An International Journal

36/4 (2009) 377– 388 This research has been carried out in the CommRob project (www.
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited [ISSN 0143-991X] commrob.eu) and is partially funded by the EU (contract No. IST-045441
[DOI 10.1108/01439910910957156] under 6th framework programme).

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 Robust navigation system based on RFID transponder barriers Industrial Robot: An International Journal
Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 1 The InBOT is equipped with a sensorized haptic handle, a
touch screen and a remote control. The lower casing was removed to
show the mecanum drive of InBOT
generates a global plan based on the topological navigation.
The local navigation contains a behavior network that fulfills
the given tasks inside a local area. Here, the basic and
advanced behavior repertoires (Figure 4) are set up. First, the
actual scene is observed and sub-targets are generated with
respect to static and dynamic objects. Then the behavior
network drives InBOT along this route and is responsible for
the micro-management of the obstacle avoidance and the
velocity control.

2. Control architecture of the navigation system

Among the most important and most basic features of
an autonomous robot is the ability to move to a certain
location without collisions. Navigation systems are usually
based on an exact metrical map. But what happens if the
environment changes too often to measure it exactly? In
supermarkets special offers or advertisements are deployed or
removed at a daily basis. Here, the robot has to find its way on
its own in close touch with the real environment without
being able to rely on a map acquired previously. At this point
the idea of combining a topological navigation and a behavior-
based control for local navigation comes up. On the one hand,
both methods cover different degrees of abstraction in a
navigation system. On the other hand they both do not
depend on an accurate and detailed map. A topological map
can be built based on the definitively static structures of the
environment like rooms and corridors without the need of

Figure 2 Main components of InBOT’s navigation system. The task planner generates a plan based on the commands given by the user. The behaviors
of the different behavior repertoires execute the plan based on information obtained from sensors or the local world model

Localw world model

Task-planner al map Occupancy grids
Topologic Robot pose
Flexible programs
Topological navigation Object database
Route planner Topological map

ata
Pr

dd
ep r inf

e
n

se

erg
io

ro
ns
act

/m
ce orm
o

d
sse

se Ex
xt

trac
aly
Ne

d tion

n ted
/a tasks
ed
a

ess
r oc
P
Sensors
Behaviours 2× S300 Laser scanner
Preprocessed sensor information
Advanced behaviour repertoire 2× 2D-Measurement wheels
Basic behaviour repertoire Gyroscope
Safety behaviours Haptic handle
Remote control

data
Movement en sor
commands
Ra ws

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 3 Overview of InBOT’s navigation system. The command received from the user is analyzed and a global plan is created based on the
topological map of the shop. This plan is handed down to the local navigation step by step. The different behaviors for predictive and reactive obstacle
avoidance execute the plan and drive InBOT through the environment safely

User interface
Move to product (milk); Area 26; (5.5, 1.2)m

Follow person

Task
Follow robot
Deive to (Topological node,
target inside node)

Topolgical
navigation
01 02 03 04 05
06 07 08
29
34
Actual: 12
09 10 11 12 13 14
30
Drive to 16
35
15 16 17 18 31 Drive to 22
32 Drive to 26
19 20 21 22 23 24 36
33 Drive to (5.5, 1.2) in 26
25 26 27 28
Follow person

Task
Follow robot
Deive to target inside node

Local navigation

Drive to target location in 12

-> Connection of node 12 to 16

Move autonomously
Follow user
Lead user
Haptic steering mode

Straight left

Very slow
Careful
No restriction 0°

Straight right

exact measurement. When moving inside such a node the
robot is moved by the behavior-based control.
Three main fields of duty can be identified here. These are
the task and topological route planning, the handling of
dynamic objects and the interaction with humans, and finally
safe and reliable local navigation. A three-layered navigation
concept was developed to cover the mentioned three
identified tasks (Figure 5). The first layer, called strategic
layer, is responsible for deliberative long-term planning. It
houses the task-planner and the topological navigation. The
tactical layer contains a behavior-based control to deal with
dynamic objects in a local area and with the interaction with
nearby humans. The behaviors are based on different
modules for scene analysis like object and user tracking.
And finally, at the bottom of the hierarchy, the reactive layer’s
goal is to fulfill movement tasks inside a local topological area
using a behavior network as its control mechanism. It is based
on a highly dynamic potential-field approach.
2.1 Local world model
The local world model is a layer-independent model of the
robot’s surroundings and inner state. It is divided into several
levels corresponding to the degree of abstraction of the
contained data.
2.1.1 Data acquisition level
The reactive behaviors responsible for the obstacle avoidance
work based on an occupancy grid (Elfes, 1989; Thrun, 2002).
These grids merge information from various sources like the
two laser-scanners, information received from other robots or
memorized at an earlier point in time. This level additionally
houses the inner state of the robot like its position and
velocity, the actual task and the target.

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 4 Overview of InBOT’s control hierarchy. The task planner generates a plan based on the command given by the user and the actual mode to
operate in. This plan is processed by the behaviors of the different behavior repertoires step by step
Tasks Modes
Commands
Move to product Guide user
from user Move to user Follow user
interaction Stop Haptic steering
Wait Autonomous

Task
planning Task planner
topological navigation

Advanced
Park left Move to target Turn around …
behaviour
repertoire

Basic
behaviour Avoid obstacles Find gap Straight to target …
repertoire

Fusion

Hardware
Hardware
abstraction
abstraction
layer

2.1.2 Data interpretation level

The more deliberative behaviors make use of an object
Figure 5 The architecture of InBOT is arranged in four layers according database. This database contains information about identified
to the degree of abstraction of the used information and the response and tracked objects like their position and velocity. The
time needed. The local world model is independent and accessed by all behaviors and modules that depend on this data, mostly
layers found in the tactical layer, are not exactly part of the basic
navigation system. Rather, they make use of the
Slow functionalities provided by the navigation system. Therefore,
Deliberative
this layer is mentioned here for the sake of completeness only.
User interface 2.1.3 Abstract data level
Strategic layer
The highest level of abstraction houses the topological map
Task planning
topological navigation
with its semantic annotations. The shop (Figure 6) is split up
route planning into several areas (Figure 6). The areas and their connections
are mapped to a topological map (Figure 6). The only
Local

Tactical layer information needed for a certain area is the relative positions
of the contained entry points. The semantic map is a semantic
Local navigation - Tactical part extension of the topological map. Each node is enhanced with
Action generation

advanced behavior repertoire

semantic information about the node. The semantic
Reaction
World

information can be used to tell whether a node should be

Reactive layer
avoided in a global plan or to follow restrictions to velocity
Local navigation - reactive part and acceleration. Additionally the information can be used to
basic behavior repetoire avoid certain dangers like mirrors that could trick sensor
Model

systems.

Hard ware abraction layer 2.1.3.1 RFID barriers. A crucial question for the topological
navigation is: how does the robot know when it is entering a
new topological area? Usually the robot looks for certain
landmarks. Many of the landmark-based systems for
localization share a common disadvantage: the landmarks
can easily be occluded. Wall- or ceiling-mounted long-range
Reactive Fast RFID-based systems can easily be blocked as well, especially

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 6 The shop (left) is divided into several areas (middle). Each of the areas forms one topological area of the topological map (right)

01 02 03 04 05

06 07 08

34
09 10 11 12 13 14 29

30
35
15 16 17 18
31

32
19 20 21 22 23 24 36
33

25 26 27 28

01 02 03 04 05

06 07 08
29
34
09 10 11 12 13 14

30
35
15 16 17 18 31

32
19 20 21 22 23 24 36

33

25 26 27 28

Figure 7 Picture of an RFID barrier with RFID transponders glued

by humans. To avoid occlusions and to get more precise
underneath a piece of PVC flooring
position information the authors propose the use of
ground-mounted RFID transponders (Glover and Bhatt,
2006) as landmarks.
The RFID transponders are organized in barriers (Figure 7)
which are placed across corridors (Figure 8) to divide them
into several areas. By driving past a barrier the robot detects
the tags and recognizes that it just entered a new area. By
doubling the tags, as depicted in Figure 7 or Figure 8, it even
knows its driving direction. This information is redundant but
can be used to resolve errors or hijacking problems.
To identify a proper height for assembling the RFID reader
on the robot, the reader’s coupling area was measured. As
shown in Figure 9 a distance of 2 cm between reader and
barrier has proven optimal. The larger the coupling area the
faster the robot can move past the barrier without missing it
and the sparser the tags can be placed. Using this setup the
robot was able to detect all barriers in the tests at velocities of
up to approx. 2 m s2 1 when double tags were used

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 8 Placement of RFID barriers to divide a corridor in different 2.2.1 Task planning
areas The primary job of the task planner is to collect and arrange
the tasks received from the user interface. Usually, the tasks
are given in a certain order. In this case the task planner just
queues up the tasks. But the task planner can sort them by
different policies as well. After that the task planner breaks
down the tasks in several sub-tasks that can be processed by
the lower components. For example, the task “Finish
Shopping” would be divided into “GotoCashier”,
“QueueUp”, and “Wait”.
2.2.2 Topological navigation
If a sub-task is encountered that contains a “Goto” command,
topological navigation takes place. The robot plans a route
from its current topological node to the node that contains the
target. This planning is done by an A * algorithm. It is
enhanced to be able to utilize the semantic information
Figure 9 The largest diameter of the coupling area is found at a provided by the map. Because the topological map is a very
distance of 2 cm from the reader high-level discretization, the navigation takes place in a small
state space, so the processing costs are very low.
20 2.2.3 Route planning
Route planning takes place based on the plan provided by the
15
topological navigation. If the next command is a movement to
an adjacent topological area the relative coordinates of the
10
Z [cm]

barriers to be passed is looked up. If the command is to move

5 20
to a location inside the area, the relative coordinates of the
15 target are added. Alternatively other sources for the target of a
10
0 5 movement can be defined here, e.g. the local world model if
0
]
cm

–5 InBOT is ordered to move to its user or to another robot.

Y[

–10
–20 –15 –15
–10 –5 0 5 10 –20 2.2.4 Flexible program tree
15 20
X [cm] In each step the generated (sub-)plan is stored in the program
tree (Figure 11). Here, two kinds of nodes are defined: action
nodes and planning nodes. When the plan is executed it is
(Figure 10). The reading performance with a single tag is analyzed from left to right in a depth-first manner. Each time
significantly inferior (Göller et al., 2008b). a planning node is encountered the needed planning step is
performed by the responsible component described above.
2.2 Strategic layer The whole planning process is not performed at once, but step
Tasks coming from the user interface first of all show up at the by step on demand. This way the robot is able to start with
strategic layer. Here, the task planner decomposes the tasks. the first action without delay and no computational effort is
First, the incoming tasks are arranged and concatenated. In wasted if the plan is interrupted.
the topological navigation step the active task is analyzed and Owing to its tree structure the plan is very flexible and can
if necessary a sequence of topological areas is calculated to be changed at runtime without effort (Figure 12). In the
reach the target area. Finally, target points are calculated for depicted case the actual action would be postponed and new
the actual topological area. actions would be inserted. After completing the inserted
actions the robot continues with the postponed action.
Each time an action node is encountered while processing
Figure 10 If using double tags in the barriers the barriers are detected the program tree, the corresponding action is determined and
very reliably at velocities of up to 2 m s2 1 activated. The active action is handed down to an action
140 selection module. The action selection selects the needed
1 RFID tag behaviors to fulfill the active action and motivates them.
120 2 RFID tags
2.3 Tactical layer
Read RFID tags [%]

100 This layer enables the robot to perform sophisticated

movements by (de-)activating basic behaviors of the reactive
80
layer. The tasks center around handling dynamic obstacles,
60 coordinating with other robots and the user interaction.
These behaviors form the advanced behavior repertoire
40 (Figure 4). A special perceptual functionality is the
observation and classification of local objects. This
20
information is finally stored in the local world model.
0 This layer is not exactly part of the basic navigation system.
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 Rather, it makes use of the functionalities provided by the
Velocity of reader [m/s] basic behavior repertoire. Therefore, this layer is sketched

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 11 Sketch of a plan in a tree structure. On the right side the corresponding steps of the planning process are indicated

Task
planner
Go to
Go to …
<Product 2>
<Product 1>

Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 3 Topological

navigation

Move to Move to
Move to Change Move to Change location location
connection area connection area of product 1 of product 2
Route
planner

Figure 12 Plan after the user interrupted the robot and commanded it to stop and to move to a local point

–
Stop!
go over there. Task
Ok, wait here. Planner
Go to Go to ...
<Product 1> <Product 2>

Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 3 Topological

navigation

Move to Move to
Move to Change – Change location location
connection area area of product 1 of product 2 Route
planner
Move ot
location Move to
Stop Wait
(X,Y) connection

here for the sake of completeness only. Large parts of the Figure 13 The behavior-module is the basic unit of a behavior-based
interactive and cooperative functionalities were under control. Data flow, via the interfaces (e) and (u), is distinguished from
development while this document was written. control flow, via the interfaces rating (r), motivation (m), activity (a),
and inhibition (i)
2.4 Reactive layer
The main objective of this layer is to provide the repertoire of
Control
basic behaviors (Figure 4), which offers the basic skills of rm a
InBOT. To fulfill the demanded fast response to a : a(f(e,i,m)) : activity
r : r(e) : rating (in terms of satisfaction)
environmental changes, these behaviors act on impulse
m : (external) motivation
based on sensory input only. To acquire a goal-oriented e u = f(e,i,m) U i : (external) inhibition
overall behavior they need to be arbitrated by higher
behaviors. The reactive layer receives a goal from higher Data
behaviors and transforms it into a set-point velocity vector. To e : data input vector
respect additional constraints several other velocity vectors are i
u : data output vector
generated by different behaviors. All of them are finally
merged to a resulting velocity vector which is handed down to
the hardware abstraction layer.
Owing to this loose coupling of the different modules the
2.4.1 Behavior networks present functionalities can easily be recombined. They even
The behavior modules (Figure 13) are the basic units of the can be motivated halfway only, to support some other
behavior networks. They are small software modules that are functionality. This way for example a slight obstacle avoidance
dedicated to a single well-defined task and work augmentation for the haptic steering mode can be
independently and in parallel at all times (Göller et al., implemented (Göller et al., 2009b). Another advantage is
2008b). Individual behaviors can be woven into behavior the easy expandability of the network. New functionalities can
networks. In such a network a whole set of behaviors combine simply be applied by hooking in their corresponding behavior
their strictly dedicated work to fulfill a higher task. modules.

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Michael Göller et al.
2.4.2 Reactive layer of the behavior network
The reactive layer is split into four levels itself (Figure 14).
The task-oriented level deals with the selection or generation
of (sub-)targets. The behaviors in the object-oriented level are
based on a dynamic potential field method using repelling or
attracting vectors as common language. They move the robot
away from obstacles and towards the given (sub-)target. Each
module contributes one vector and all vectors are merged by a
fusion behavior.
2.4.3 Task-oriented level
The top level of the behavior network is responsible for
fulfilling a certain task. Possible goal-oriented data sources are
found here. They provide either a target location or directly a
set-point velocity vector. In the case of a target location, a
predictive obstacle handling takes place. Finally, one vector is
selected and handed down to the object-oriented level.
2.4.3.1 Predictive obstacle handling. If a target location is
known, i.e. the task is a point-to-point movement instead of,
e.g. the haptic control of the robot, predictive obstacle
handling takes place to overcome the local minima problem of
potential field approaches (Koren and Borenstein, 1991b)
and to generate more efficient paths. The obstacles are
scanned for corners, which are then ordered by their quality
depending on their distance and direction compared to the
robot and the target. The best corner is chosen as new sub-
target. This way the robot is driving on a kind of dynamic
visibility graph. A brief example is given in Figure 15
(Göller et al., 2008a, 2009a).
2.4.4 Object-oriented level
At this level the task-oriented attracting vector is merged with
attracting and repelling vectors added by several special
behaviors. Each of the reactive behaviors generates one
Figure 14 The four levels of the reactive layer containing the behavior network. Behavior groups, or sub-networks, are indicated with G, the special
fusion behaviors with F
W (m) W (m)
Straight to (_v,a)
Joystick
target (G)
input
(+ look f. corners)
W W
Mobile (_v,a)
object
handler (G)
Virtual sensors/
W
world model
Industrial Robot: An International Journal
Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388
velocity vector. All these vectors are merged with the vector
from one of the task-oriented behaviors and generate a kind of
highly dynamic potential field. It depends on many
parameters like the status (position, velocity, orientation,
and task) of the robot and environmental information
(distance, position, velocity of objects, and target). Because
of the complexity of the processed information no path
planning is performed. The robot calculates the most
beneficial movement online instead. The data base for this
level is occupancy maps.
2.4.4.1 Dynamic obstacle handler group. This group consists
of two modules. The first one generates reflexes like a vector
that points directly away from a nearby dynamic object to
obtain a safety distance. The second behavior needs a
movement model acquired in the tactical layer. Based on the
movement model a probabilistic temporal repelling field is
calculated and finally merged to a resulting repelling vector.
This group of behaviors is assisted by a more deliberative
handler for dynamic obstacles. It is found in the tactical layer
itself. It generates sub-targets to preventively avoid crowded
areas or solve blocking situations on a spatiotemporal basis.
2.4.4.2 Static obstacle handler group. The structure of the
corresponding group is shown in Figure 16. Two behaviors
observe the right-hand and left-hand obstacles. In special
cases look for gaps is motivated to look for passages and break
tie is activated to force a decision if necessary. The behavior
for wall following inhibits one of the obstacle avoidance
behaviors. There is a detailed description of these behaviors in
Göller et al. (2008a, 2009a). An extract of a Matlab
simulation of them is shown in Figure 17.
Task-oriented level
W (m) W (m)
(_v,a) Follow (_v,a) (_v,a)
moving …
target
(_v,a) (_v,a)
F Obstacle
Max:
select source handler (G)
(_v,a)
F Gew:
Object-oriented level
drive command
(_v,a)
Drive abstraction Drive-oriented level
Predictive (_v,a)
safety Safety-oriented level
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Figure 15 The predictive obstacle handler uses corners of visible
obstacles as sub-targets which temporarily replace the original target
X barriers (with single RFID tags) where not detected reliably
X enough. At velocities higher than approx. 1 m s2 1 not all
X X
3.1 Topological navigation
The first focus lies on evaluating the reliability of the detection
of RFID-based artificial landmarks. Tests showed that normal
barriers where detected (gray line in Figure 10). When using
pairs of tags instead the robot was able to detect all barriers at
velocities of up to approx. 2 m s2 1, which is sufficient for our
scenario. Additionally the best distance between two pairs of
tags in a barrier (20 cm) and the best distance of the RFID
reader from the ground (2 cm) were determined.
After successfully testing the basic functionality of the global
navigation on different series of movement tasks (Figure 18)
the robustness of the system was tested. For example, doors
where closed to simulate impassable obstacles. If a route
existed it was found by the robot. Next the robot was hijacked.
While on its way to a target it was moved away into a
neighboring area. The robot recognized the “mistake” at once
when hitting the wrong barrier and re-planned the route
(Figure 19).

2.5 Hardware abstraction layer

The hardware abstraction layer encapsulates various hardware
components and performs information pre-processing.
Representing the lower end of the command chain the
robot’s mecanum drive (Viboonchaicheep et al., 2003) is
controlled here. Owing to the uncertain odometry of a
mecanum drive the most important are two 2D measurement
wheels and a gyroscope. For the detection of obstacles two
planar laser scanners are used. Additionally two RFID readers
are embedded here, the first one for the RFID barriers, the
other for an interactive shopping assistant.
3. Experimental results
The topological navigation with RFID barriers as artificial
landmarks and local navigation with focus on the predictive
and reactive obstacle avoidance have been evaluated. The
corresponding tests were performed first for each level
independently and finally for all levels at once interacting
with each other.
3.2 Local navigation
Several experiments were performed to evaluate the
functionalities of the behavior-based control. Some of
the results are presented in the following. Figure 20 shows
the path taken by InBOT when it was confronted with a
dead-end-shaped obstacle. The predictive obstacle handling
leads the robot around the obstacle by generating appropriate
sub-targets. Figure 21 shows a combined test for the two most
prominent shortcomings of potential-field methods: another
U-shaped obstacle and a narrow passage where potential-field
approaches tend to oscillate. Another experiment is depicted
in Figure 22. It was performed fifty times. In this scenario
InBOT was guiding the user through a corridor cluttered with
several obstacles. In the scene presented in Figure 23 the
behavior look for gaps detects a narrow passage and helps
maneuvering InBOT through it. The underlying occupancy
map with the indicated velocity vectors from the different
behaviors is shown in Figure 23.

Figure 16 The main behavior modules of the group are responsible for avoiding obstacles. They are assisted by behaviors dedicated to special
situations
Obstacle handler group

W W (a) W (i)
+ Look for ( v–,a) Break ( v–,a)
Follow ( v–,a) gap tie
+
wall
(m) (m)
&
W (i) (a) W (i) (a)
Avoid obstacle –( v ,a) Avoid obstacle ( v–,a)
left right

Fgew:
obstacle handler

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Michael Göller et al. Volume 36 · Number 4 · 2009 · 377 –388

Figure 17 A Matlab simulation illustrates the vectors of the behaviors Figure 20 InBOT solves a U-shaped obstacle. The gray “X”s represent
avoid obstacles (light gray and gray), the task-oriented vector (gray), the corners of the obstacle chosen by the predictive obstacle handler
and the resulting vector (black)

Figure 18 Exemplary topological path in our labs Figure 21 InBOT solving two classical shortcomings of potential field
methods: dead ends and narrow corridors

Figure 22 InBOT moving through a corridor with various obstacles

Figure 19 While performing a task the robot was hijacked (dotted

line). InBOT detects the wrong barrier and re-plans the task successfully

Figure 23 (left) InBOT guides the user through a narrow passage;

(right) corresponding occupancy grid with indicated velocity vectors of
the different behaviors

4. Related work and discrimination

Several robots are designed to assist humans in their everyday
life. Toomas (Böhme and Gross, 2006) works as shopping
assistant and information kiosk. Care-O-bot (Graf et al.,
2004) assists elderly people in their home environment. Rhino
(Thrun et al., 1999) was developed as a museum guide.
Another representative is the robot Robox (Siegwart et al.,
2003). It was developed as an interactive tour guide at the
Expo02. All mentioned systems except for Robox are based
on a detailed global metrical map. Robox is forced to navigate
on a pre-defined graph that connects the important locations.

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Michael Göller et al.
The concept presented in this document is designed to be
independent from a global metrical map.
Robots controlle1d by a behavior-based control approach
are hardly found in complex real-world applications like
museum guides or intelligent shopping carts. They tend to be
very application-specific instead and do not follow the
necessary general-purpose approach required for real-world
applications. InBOT is an approach to close this gap.
There are robots which are indeed used as shopping
assistants, but are not personalized to one customer. Others
do their job as personalized guides in museums. But the
concept of a combination seems not to be well known. In
contrast InBOT will be able to lead a user, to process
shopping lists or to inform the user about the goods in the
basket or to enable self-scanning. It will be fully personalized.
4.1 Strategic layer
There are many works focusing on artificial landmarks. For
example, in works by Guo and Xu (2006) and Yoon and Kweon
(2001), colored visual landmarks are used. They are designed to
be robust against perspective transformations and easy to
identify. Besides, these camera-based approaches there are
infrared-based landmarks (Tomizawa et al., 2007) or long-range
RFID systems (Chae and Han, 2005; Hähnel et al., 2004). By
using these RFID concepts only rough position estimations are
possible. Therefore, these systems are only used as an
enhancement for other systems. The concept presented in this
document proposes ground-mounted RFID transponder
barriers to make occlusions impossible and to strongly increase
the position accuracy of the system. The disadvantage on the
other hand is that position corrections are only possible at the
very moment the robot passes over an RFID barrier.
Topological maps are very compact. They represent large
structures like corridors or rooms so they are as far as possible
time-invariant (Althaus, 2003). Additionally they are easy to
construct even for large places. When considering
human-robot interaction the fact stands out that topological
maps are much easier understood by humans than large
metrical ones. Often the topological maps are combined with
local metrical maps (Kuipers, 2006). They can be constructed
manually, as done for Robox (Siegwart et al., 2003), but often
the robot learns them automatically (Thrun, 1998).
4.2 Reactive layer
The proposed behavior-based control centers on the very popular
potential field methods (Khatib, 1986). These are subject to
limitations such as trapping situations or oscillations because of the
close field of view (Koren and Borenstein, 1991), so these methods
are often enhanced (Khatib and Chatila, 1995; Antich, 2005).
A comparable approach, the virtual force field, is introduced in
Borenstein and Koren (1990) and later on leads to vector field
histograms (VFH, Borenstein and Koren, 1991; Ulrich and
Borenstein, 1998). These are based on the occupancy/certainty-
grid methods. All relevant cells generate a repelling force.
Generally these methods do not take the robot’s dynamics into
account. In contrast the dynamic windows method (Fox et al.,
1997; Fox et al., 1996) is specially designed to cope with higher
velocities where the robot’s dynamics must not be omitted.
The navigation concept provided in this document proposes a
potential field method based on occupancy grids encapsulated
in behavior modules. In contrast to usual potential field
methods the robot’s dynamics are taken into account. In
contrast to the VFHs only one representative repelling vector is
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generated for every object. Another specialty of the concept is
the robot’s predictive obstacle analysis, prior to the application
of the potential field. Additionally the holonomic character of
the mecanum drive is taken into account.
5. Conclusion and outlook
In this paper, a navigation system for a mobile robot was
introduced that was developed especially for highly dynamic
environments. A main aspect to deal with was the lack of
metrical maps in such environments. Therefore, the
navigation was divided into two parts.
The strategic part works based on very few static structures
assumed to be invariant. The resulting areas are discriminated
by ground-mounted barriers of RFID transponders and build
up a topological map of the location, which is then
annotated with semantic attributes. Global navigation takes
place based on this semantic map. A special focus was the
development of a reliable barrier detection. Because of the
low number of tags needed and the sparse distribution of
barriers in the shop this system is cheap and its installation is
not too invasive. In several tests the reliability and robustness
of the system has been proven.
In future work the semantic aspect of this kind of navigation
will be enhanced. It is still necessary to determine the relative
coordinates of neighboring barriers. Instead, the navigation
could be performed on a purely semantic basis. For example,
the robot could be given “the third door” as waypoint instead
of actual metric coordinates. Thus, the last remaining
metrical information of the location could be dismissed.
In the reactive part a hierarchical behavior-based control for
a holonomic robot was developed. The reactive component is
able to avoid collisions and to find a way to the intended
target. The predictive obstacle handler on the other hand
generates efficient paths that are comparable to those
generated by visibility graph methods. This way the most
prominent shortcomings of potential field methods are
negated as well. It should be kept in mind that the robot
has no global map knowledge and therefore is only able to
plan the path in visibility range of the sensors or within a local
memorized area. The network character of the control makes
it easy to extend the control with new functionalities either by
hooking in new behavior modules or by recombining already
present functionalities. This way it is possible to use the
obstacle avoidance functionality to augment the steering
functionality of the haptic handle and let InBOT move
around obstacles while it is being pushed by its user. Another
exemplary augmentation can be achieved by only slightly
activating the target-attracting functionality while the robot is
pushed, so that the robot pulls the user slightly when a
direction change or a turn is necessary.
Finally, after developing the basic navigation system, future
work will focus on three main fields of duty: the handling of
dynamic objects will be finalized, the coordination with other
robots will be advanced, and the most important aspect, the
interaction with the user, will be elaborated with the help of
user studies and experiments which are now made possible.
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Corresponding author
Michael Göller can be contacted at: goeller@fzi.de