Is Robotics Going Statistics? The Field of Probabilistic Robotics
In the 1970s, most research in robotics presupposed the availability of exact models, of robots and their environments. Little emphasis was placed on sensing and the intrinsic limitations of modeling complex physical phenomena. This changed in the mid-1980s, when the paradigm shifted towards reactive techniques. Reactive controllers rely on capable sensors to generate robot control. Rejections of models were typical for researchers in this field. Since the mid-1990s, a new approach has begun to emerge: probabilistic robotics. This approach relies on statistical techniques to seamlessly integrate imperfect models and imperfect sensing. The present article describes the basics of probabilistic robotics and highlights some of its recent successes.