An autonomous system used in the DARPA Grand Challenge

Abstract

An autonomous system was designed and constructed to traverse the hostile desert terrain in the DARPA Grand Challenge robotics competition. Our autonomous system used GPS measurements in conjunction with a laser range finder to determine the passable terrain and to negotiate around natural and man-made obstacles on the route. The primary navigation portion of this system uses a scalable, heuristic array of data, and determines the preferred heading of the vehicle, factoring desired heading from a GPS sensor and obstacle data from a laser range finder. When implemented, this system demonstrated the capability to pass stationary vehicles and navigate sloping terrain while negotiating around fences and towers between sequential GPS waypoints.