This paper proposes an approach for obstacle avoidance to ensure safe navigation in a mazy environment. The presented bubble bug algorithm (BBA) is an enhancement of already proposed intelligent bug algorithm (IBA), which over performs bug variants. The improved performance of BBA is achieved by fusing IBA with bubble band technique (BBT) and bubble rebound algorithm (BRA). The novelty of the proposed strategy BBA lies in its salient features compared with the existing algorithms, achieved by addressing limitations of IBA and BRA. The proposed solution is goal-oriented and offers collision avoidance from neighboring obstacles by defining bubble around the robot. Simulation results illustrating navigation in various scenarios and comparative plots of path cost witness effectiveness of the proposed approach.

Keywords: Autonomous mobile robots, Obstacle avoidance, Path planning