Proofs of Technical Results Justifying an Algorithm of Reactive 3D Navigation of a Mobile Robot through an Unknown Tunnel

Abstract

A nonholonomic under-actuated robot with a bounded control range travels inside an unknown and unstructured 3D tunnel bounded by a generic 2D surface. The robot has access to the nearest point of the surface and measures the distance to the surface along any ray from a narrow beam emitted from the robot around the direction to the nearest point. The paper presents some mathematical facts underlying justification of the convergence and performance of a new navigation law that ensures constant advancement of the robot through the tunnel, along with respecting a given safety margin to its surface, driving the robot to the desired distance to it, and subsequently maintaining this distance.