A novel CAM-based robotic indoor exploration algorithm and its area-efficient implementation

We present a hardware-directed robotic exploration algorithm for an indoor environment in this paper. The robot is equipped with eight ultrasonic sensors. The algorithm has optimal (linear) time complexity. An important feature of the algorithm is the acquisition of distance information by the eight sensors in parallel. A novel architecture based on Content Addressable Memory (CAM) has been developed. An FPGA implementation has also been developed. Experiments with an FPGA-based robot have been successfully conducted for exploration of static as well as dynamic environments. © 2008 IEEE.