The ActivMedia P2-DX robot to your left is a live image. If it is still does not update, Set Up your browser for live images. In that case, the Pioneer's LARC Smart Sonar obstacle avoidance behaviors will override the driver's instructions and avoid a collision. For many applications, intelligent robots can determine and navigate their own path to a goal faster than a human can drive them there. That's why ActivMedia robots use sonar or laser sensors to localize and navigate in most applications.
Obstacle avoidance is one component of robotic navigation.
Our robots can also build maps and identify objects in the spaces it occupies. Robots using multi-agent software may each collect information about part of a space and combine it to create an accurate map far more quickly than any single robot could. When robots operate in rapidly changing environments, their programmers tend to rely less on maps. Instead they write programs that react to the features of objects they currently sense. These features, in conjunction with their goals, determine the robot's next actions.