A novel approach for a double-check of passable vegetation detection in autonomous ground vehicles

The paper introduces an active way to detect vegetation which is at front of the vehicle in order to give a better decision-making in navigation. Blowing devices are to be used for creating strong wind to effect vegetation. Motion compensation and motion detection techniques are applied to detect foreground objects which are presumably judged as vegetation. The approach enables a double-check process for vegetation detection which was done by a multi-spectral approach, but more emphasizing on the purpose of passable vegetation detection. In all real world experiments we carried out, our approach yields a detection accuracy of over 98%. We furthermore illustrate how the active way can improve the autonomous navigation capabilities of autonomous ground vehicles.

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