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Robotics & Automation vocabulary · Machine Vision and Mobile Robots

Obstacle avoidance

Meaning in robotics & automation, with examples

/ˈɑːbstəkəl əˈvɔɪdəns/nounAdvanced term

In robotics & automation, obstacle avoidance means: The ability of a robot to detect objects or people in its way with its sensors and change its path or speed so that it does not hit them.

In Turkish: engelden kaçınma, engelden sakınma

How it is used

A key feature of AMRs, drones and service robots and a frequent topic in demos and specifications. Engineers set the safety fields, the minimum distance and how the robot reacts: slow down, stop or go around. AGVs usually just stop.

Example sentences

  1. Obstacle avoidance worked well until someone left a low trolley that the LiDAR couldn't see.

  2. In the demo, the AMR showed its obstacle avoidance by driving around a person in the aisle.

Common collocations

  • obstacle detection
  • avoid obstacles
  • safety field
  • drive around an obstacle
  • path planningFinding a route from a start point to a goal that avoids obstacles and meets limits such as the shortest distance, the shortest time or a safe clearance.
  • LiDARShort for light detection and ranging: a sensor that measures distances by sending laser pulses and timing their reflections, building a picture of the surroundings.
  • AMRShort for autonomous mobile robot: a robot that moves materials using maps and sensors such as LiDAR and cameras, choosing its own route and driving around obstacles.
  • AGVShort for automated guided vehicle: a driverless vehicle that carries materials along fixed routes marked by magnetic tape, wires, QR codes or reflectors.
  • collision detectionA function in the robot controller that compares expected and actual motor torques and stops the robot quickly if it hits something unexpected.

More terms: Machine Vision and Mobile Robots

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