On the use of Bayesian Networks to develop behaviours for mobile robots

Bayesian Networks are models which capture uncertainties in terms of probabilities that can be used to perform reasoning under uncertainty. This paper presents an attempt to use Bayesian Networks as a learning technique to manage task execution in mobile robotics. To learn the Bayesian Network structure from data, the K2 structural learning algorithm is used, combined with three different net evaluation metrics. The experiment led to a new hybrid multiclassifying system resulting from the combination of 1-NN with the Bayesian Network, that allows one to use the power of the Bayesian Network while avoiding the computational burden of the reasoning mechanism — the so-called evidence propagation process. As an application example we present an approach of the presented paradigm to implement a door-crossing behaviour in a mobile robot using only sonar readings, in an environment with smooth walls and doors. Both the performance of the learning mechanism and the experiments run in the real robot-environment system show that Bayesian Networks are valuable learning mechanisms, able to deal with the uncertainty and variability inherent to such systems.