In this paper, state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) method-based optimal control technique is applied to a robot. In recent years, issues associated with the robotics have become one of the developing fields of research. Accordingly, intelligent robots have been embraced greatly; however, control and navigation of those robots are not easy tasks as collision avoidance of stationary obstacles to doing a safe routing has to be taken care of. A moving robot in a certain time has to reach the specified goals. The robot in each time step needs to identify criteria such as velocity, safety, environment, and distance in respect to defined goals and then calculate the proper control strategy. Moreover, getting information associated with the environment to avoid obstacles, do the optimal routing, and identify the environment is necessary. The robot must intelligently perceive and act using adequate algorithms to manage required control and navigation issues. In this paper, smart navigation of a mobile robot in an environment with certain stationary obstacles (known to the robot) and optimal routing through Riccati equation depending on SDRE is considered. This approach enables the robot to do the optimal path planning in static environments. In the end, the answer SDRE controller with the answer linear quadratic controller will be compared. The results show that the proposed SDRE strategy leads to an efficient control law by which the robot avoids obstacles and moves from an arbitrary initial point × 0 to a target point. The robust performance of SDRE method for a robot to avoid obstacles and reach the target is demonstrated via simulations and experiments. Simulations are done using MATLAB software. © 2018, The Author(s).