Section 4.6 Glossary
- Reactive Navigation
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Navigation that maps current sensor input directly to action without computing a full global map first.
- Reactive Behavior
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Immediate rule-based response to sensed conditions.
- Finite State Machine (FSM)
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A way of structuring reactive control as a set of discrete, mutually exclusive states, avoiding disorganized if/else "spaghetti code."
- State
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One discrete mode of robot behavior within an FSM (for example,
DRIVE_FORWARDorTURN_LEFT), active until a transition condition is met. - Transition
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A change from one FSM state to another, triggered by a specific sensor reading crossing a defined threshold.
- Distance Sensor Array
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Multiple distance sensors (for example, Left, Front, and Right) combined to give a robot a wide local perception field, enabling it to decide which direction to turn rather than only when to stop.
- Decision Rule
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A conditional rule (for example, if-then) that selects actions from sensor measurements.
- Obstacle Avoidance
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Real-time steering behavior that reduces collision risk around detected obstacles.
- Low Latency
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Fast response time between sensing and action.
- Artificial Potential Fields (APF)
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Navigation method that treats the goal as an attractor and obstacles as repellers, using virtual attractive and repulsive forces to guide motion.
- Attractive Force (\(F_{\text{att}}\))
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Virtual force that pulls the robot toward a goal state.
- Repulsive Force (\(F_{\text{rep}}\))
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Virtual force that pushes the robot away from obstacles.
- Net Force Vector (\(F_{\text{total}}\))
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The combined steering influence after summing the attractive and all repulsive force vectors: \(F_{\text{total}} = F_{\text{att}} + F_{\text{rep}}\text{.}\)
- Local Minima Trap
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APF and other purely reactive failure mode where \(F_{\text{att}} + F_{\text{rep}} = 0\) before the goal is reached, leaving the robot frozen or oscillating with no sensed way out.
- Hybrid Architecture
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A navigation design that combines a global planner (such as A*) to avoid choosing a path into a trap, with a local reactive controller (FSM or vector avoidance) to handle dynamic obstacles along that path.
- Dynamic Environment
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An environment where obstacles or conditions can change while the robot is operating.
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