The ability of humans to avoid blind alleys is thanks to our sensing of appropriate signs and assessing distances. Our perception allows us to move back onto the correct path with little time wasted turning back – a skill that cannot be taken for granted in robots.
However, this is exactly the behaviour programmed into robots by researchers from Nicolaus Copernicus University’s Institute of Engineering and Technology.
Despite robots being largely used in predictable, organised environments such as warehouses and factories, they can still find their path blocked. According to Professor Tomasz Tarczewski, their main problem is running into dead ends, causing them to enter and exit unhelpful paths, wasting energy and time. One way to solve this problem is to implement local path-planning algorithms to ease avoidance of obstacles, making it possible for the robot to unblock itself autonomously and continue with its task.
This required Tarczewski and colleagues...