Coupled Oscillator Control of Autonomous Mobile Robots

This paper introduces a nonlinear oscillator scheme to control autonomous mobile robots. The method is based on observations of a successful control mechanism used in nature, the Central Pattern Generator. Simulations were used to assess the performance of oscillator controller when used to implement several behaviors in an autonomous robot operating in a closed arena. A sequence of basic behaviors (random wandering, obstacle avoidance and light following) was coordinated in the robot to produce the higher behavior of foraging for light. The controller is explored in simulations and tests on physical robots. It is shown that the oscillator—based controller outperforms a reactive controller in the tasks of exploring an arena with irregular walls and in searching for light.