Presents the global nearness diagram navigation system for mobile robots. The GND generates motion commands to drive a robot safely between locations, whilst avoiding collisions. This system has all the advantages of using the reactive scheme nearness diagram (ND), while having the ability to reason and plan globally (reaching global convergence to the navigation problem). This framework has been extensively tested using a holonomic mobile base equipped with a laser range-finder. Experiments in unknown, unstructured, dynamic and complex environments are reported to validate the system.