Traversability analysis for navigation of unmanned robots

Abstract

In this study, a framework for navigation of unmanned robots by combining information extraction from terrain maps with regional traversability and speed assessment is presented. The proposed method extracts the slope and roughness of a terrain patch along four heading directions and then uses them to evaluate the level of difficulty associated with the traversal. The slope is estimated through curved surface fitting incorporating the least squares method. The roughness is obtained using the fractal-based analysis together with another two RMS metrics. As navigation systems can cope with imprecision and uncertainty of input data, we modify and extend the Serajipsilas fuzzy-based measures to assess the traversability and speed of each patch for path planning. The proposed method is tested on both fractal and real terrains to verify its effectiveness.