AUTONOMOUS TUNNEL NAVIGATION WITH A ROBOTIC SYSTEM

A robotic system is disclosed that uses autonomous tunnel navigation. The system includes a plurality of sensors (e.g., ranging, odometry) to measure a distance from the robotic system to a plurality of walls. Memory stores instructions and a processor is coupled to the memory and the plurality of sensors to execute the instructions. The instructions cause the robotic system to detect movement of the robotic system through a surrounding environment based on sensor measurements, determine if the robotic system is in a tunnel based on the sensor measurements, and navigate with the odometry-based sensor when the robotic system is determined to be in the tunnel or the ranging sensor when the robotic system is determined to be not in the tunnel.