Autonomous Navigation for Mobile Robot Vehicles Over Hilly Terrain Using Rangefinding Measurements.

Abstract

The mobile robot vehicle is equipped with data acquisition and decision making devices for its autonomous navigation over rough terrain. A laser rangefinder is chosen as principal sensing device, which can determine radial distances from the vehicle to points of unpredictable hilly terrain surfaces. The overall procedure conducted for such a design consists of the following interrelated subsystems such as scanning scheme, obstacle detection scheme, terrain slope estimation, and path selection algorithm. Stochastic processes and methods are employed throughout the analysis.