Mathematical Problems in Engineering
Volume 2007 (2007), Article ID 61543, 13 pages
doi:10.1155/2007/61543
Research Article

Patrol Mobile Robots and Chaotic Trajectories

Luiz S. Martins-Filho1 and Elbert E. N. Macau2

1Departamento de Computação (DECOM), Universidade Federal de Ouro Preto (UFOP), Campus Morro do Cruzeiro, Ouro Preto 35400-000, MG, Brazil
2Laboratório Associado de Computação e Matemática Aplicada (LAC), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE), P.O. Box 515, São José dos Campos 12227-010, SP, Brazil

Received 16 October 2006; Revised 19 January 2007; Accepted 16 April 2007

Academic Editor: José Manoel Balthazar

Copyright © 2007 Luiz S. Martins-Filho and Elbert E. N. Macau. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

This paper presents a study of special trajectories attainment for mobile robots based on the dynamical features of chaotic systems. This method of trajectories construction is envisaged for missions for terrain exploration, with the specific purpose of search or patrol, where fast scanning of the robot workspace is required. We propose the imparting of chaotic motion behavior to the mobile robot by means of a planner of goal positions sequence based on an area-preserving chaotic map. As a consequence, the robot trajectories seem highly opportunistic and unpredictable for external observers, and the trajectories's characteristics ensure the quick scanning of the patrolling space. The kinematic modeling and the closed-loop control of the robot are described. The results and discussion of numerical simulations close the paper.