Autonomous Vehicle Navigation ─ From Behavioral to Hybrid Multi-Controller Architectures

Autonomous vehicles are no longer just a fixture of science fiction. This book introduces a new, effective approach to controlling autonomous vehicles in cluttered environments, using reactive and multi-controller architecture. Techniques to address different complex tasks when navigating one vehicle in a cluttered environment, as well as the coordination of a group of vehicles navigating within a geometric formation in a cluttered environment are extensively covered. Researchers in robotics, control, and electrical engineering will find this book informative and engaging.

Lounis Adouane received his MS in 2001 from IRCCyN - ECN Nantes, France, where he worked on the control of legged mobile robotics. In 2005 he obtained a PhD in Automatic Control from LAB - UFCBesancon. During his PhD study, Dr. Adouane investigated the field of multi-robot systems, especially those relaying to reactive control architectures. After that, in 2005 he joined LAI - INSA Lyon, and he studied hybrid control architectures applied to cooperative mobile robots arms. Since 2006 he is an Associate Professor at Institut Pascal – Polytech Clermont-Ferrand. His main research and teaching activities are linked to Robotics, Automatic Control, and Computing Science. His research interests include Mobile Robotics Control, Control of Complex Systems, Behavioral/Hybrid Control Architectures, Cooperative Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (Fuzzy Logic, Neural Network, etc.), Multi-Robot/Agent Simulation.