Laser Scanner Based Free Navigation of Autonomous Vehicles

Abstract A fast and robust navigation system is presented to guide autonomous vehicles in industrial surroundings. The position and orientation of the vehicle are estimated by comparing laser scanner range data with an environment model composed of two-dimensional lines. The environment model is drawn up with the aid of a semi-automated editor. The computing time of the presented algorithm is independent of the model size due to precompilation. This navigation system has been implemented on a transputer network. In addition, practical results are presented here.