Toward Reliable Off Road Autonomous Vehicles Operating in Challenging Environments

The DARPA PerceptOR program has implemented a rigorous evaluative test program which fosters the development of field relevant outdoor mobile robots. Autonomous ground vehicles were deployed on diverse test courses throughout the USA and quantitatively evaluated on such factors as autonomy level, waypoint acquisition, failure rate, speed, and communications bandwidth. Our efforts over the three year program have produced new approaches in planning, perception, localization, and control which have been driven by the quest for reliable operation in challenging environments. This paper focuses on some of the most unique aspects of the systems developed by the CMU PerceptOR team, the lessons learned during the effort, and the most immediate challenges that remain to be addressed.

[1]  Gary Witus,et al.  Terrain characterization and classification with a mobile robot , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[2]  Alonzo Kelly,et al.  On-Line Stability Margin and Attitude Estimation for Dynamic Articulating Mobile Robots , 2005, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[3]  Roland Siegwart,et al.  Towards Autonomous Indoor Micro VTOL , 2005, Auton. Robots.

[4]  Roberto Manduchi,et al.  Obstacle Detection and Terrain Classification for Autonomous Off-Road Navigation , 2005, Auton. Robots.

[5]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Field D*: An Interpolation-Based Path Planner and Replanner , 2005, ISRR.

[6]  Steven Dubowsky,et al.  Online terrain parameter estimation for wheeled mobile robots with application to planetary rovers , 2004, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[7]  Martial Hebert,et al.  Finding organized structures in 3-D ladar data , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[8]  Martial Hebert,et al.  Natural terrain classification using 3-d ladar data , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[9]  James R. Bergen,et al.  Visual odometry , 2004, Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2004. CVPR 2004..

[10]  David M. Bradley,et al.  Vegetation Detection for Mobile Robot Navigation , 2004 .

[11]  S. J. Sutley,et al.  Imaging spectroscopy: Earth and planetary remote sensing with the USGS Tetracorder and expert systems , 2003 .

[12]  Jonathan M. Roberts,et al.  Wall Following with Constrained Active Contours , 2003, FSR.

[13]  Alonzo Kelly,et al.  Reactive Nonholonomic Trajectory Generation via Parametric Optimal Control , 2003, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[14]  Alonzo Kelly,et al.  Real-Time, Multi-Perspective Perception for Unmanned Ground Vehicles , 2003 .

[15]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Learning Predictions of the Load-Bearing Surface for Autonomous Rough-Terrain Navigation in Vegetation , 2003, FSR.

[16]  Steven Dubowsky,et al.  On-line terrain parameter estimation for planetary rovers , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[17]  Stergios I. Roumeliotis,et al.  Augmenting inertial navigation with image-based motion estimation , 2002, Proceedings 2002 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.02CH37292).

[18]  Hani Hagras,et al.  Online Learning and Adaptation of Autonomous Mobile Robots for Sustainable Agriculture , 2002, Auton. Robots.

[19]  Karl Murphy,et al.  Autonomous Mobility for the Demo III Experimental Unmanned Vehicles , 2002 .

[20]  Roberto Manduchi,et al.  Fast and reliable obstacle detection and segmentation for cross-country navigation , 2002, Intelligent Vehicle Symposium, 2002. IEEE.

[21]  Larry Matthies,et al.  Stereo vision and rover navigation software for planetary exploration , 2002, Proceedings, IEEE Aerospace Conference.

[22]  Alonzo Kelly,et al.  Integrated Air/Ground Vehicle System for Semi-Autonomous Off-Road Navigation , 2002 .

[23]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Robust Simultaneous Localization and Mapping for Very Large Outdoor Environments , 2002, ISER.

[24]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  A solution to the simultaneous localization and map building (SLAM) problem , 2001, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[25]  Eduardo Mario Nebot,et al.  Implementation of Simultaneous Navigation and Mapping in Large Outdoor Environments , 2001, ISRR.

[26]  L. Matthies,et al.  A Compact and Low-Power Two-Axis Scanning Laser Rangefinder for Mobile Robots , 2001 .

[27]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Field Robots , 2001, ISRR.

[28]  Roberto Manduchi,et al.  Ladar-Based Discrimination of Grass from Obstacles for Autonomous Navigation , 2000, ISER.

[29]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  A Low-Cost, Redundant Inertial Measurement Unit for Unmanned Air Vehicles , 2000, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[30]  Roberto Manduchi,et al.  Terrain perception for DEMO III , 2000, Proceedings of the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium 2000 (Cat. No.00TH8511).

[31]  Larry Matthies,et al.  A Compact and Low Power Two-Axis Scanning Laser Rangerfinder for Mobile Robots , 2000 .

[32]  Aurelio Piazzi,et al.  Visual perception of obstacles and vehicles for platooning , 2000, IEEE Trans. Intell. Transp. Syst..

[33]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  Precision 3-D Modeling for Autonomous Helicopter Flight , 2000 .

[34]  Peter I. Corke,et al.  Development of a 3500-Tonne Field Robot , 1999, Int. J. Robotics Res..

[35]  Moëz Cherif,et al.  Motion planning for all-terrain vehicles: a physical modeling approach for coping with dynamic and contact interaction constraints , 1999, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[36]  Mark Perry,et al.  Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Automation in Space , 1999 .

[37]  Peter J. Burt,et al.  Techniques for Autonomous, Off-Road Navigation , 1998, IEEE Intell. Syst..

[38]  Philippe Bidaud,et al.  Modeling robot-soil interaction for planetary rover motion control , 1998, Proceedings. 1998 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Innovations in Theory, Practice and Applications (Cat. No.98CH36190).

[39]  C. M. Shoemaker,et al.  The Demo III UGV program: a testbed for autonomous navigation research , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) held jointly with IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) Intell.

[40]  K. Murphy,et al.  Path planning for autonomous vehicles driving over rough terrain , 1998, Proceedings of the 1998 IEEE International Symposium on Intelligent Control (ISIC) held jointly with IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence in Robotics and Automation (CIRA) Intell.

[41]  Robin R. Murphy,et al.  Artificial intelligence and mobile robots: case studies of successful robot systems , 1998 .

[42]  Alonzo Kelly,et al.  Rough Terrain Autonomous Mobility—Part 2: An Active Vision, Predictive Control Approach , 1998, Auton. Robots.

[43]  E. Gat.  On Three-Layer Architectures , 1997 .

[44]  Kurt Konolige,et al.  Small Vision Systems: Hardware and Implementation , 1998 .

[45]  Omead Amidi,et al.  3-D Site Mapping with the CMU Autonomous Helicopter , 1998 .

[46]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  A stereo machine for video-rate dense depth mapping and its new applications , 1996, Proceedings CVPR IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[47]  Todd Jochem,et al.  Rapidly Adapting Machine Vision for Automated Vehicle Steering , 1996, IEEE Expert.

[48]  Simon Lacroix,et al.  Adaptive Navigation for Autonomous Mobile Robots , 1996 .

[49]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  The Focussed D* Algorithm for Real-Time Replanning , 1995, IJCAI.

[50]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Inertial navigation systems for mobile robots , 1995, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[51]  Martial Hebert,et al.  A behavior-based system for off-road navigation , 1994, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[52]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Optimal and efficient path planning for partially-known environments , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[53]  Thierry Siméon,et al.  3-D autonomous navigation in a natural environment , 1994, Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[54]  Larry H. Matthies,et al.  Stochastic performance, modeling and evaluation of obstacle detectability with imaging range sensors , 1994, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[55]  S. V. Sreenivasan,et al.  Stability and traction control of an actively actuated micro-rover , 1994, J. Field Robotics.

[56]  Thomas S. Huang,et al.  Motion and structure from feature correspondences: a review , 1994, Proc. IEEE.

[57]  Thierry Siméon,et al.  A practical motion planner for all-terrain mobile robots , 1993, Proceedings of 1993 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS '93).

[58]  Panos J. Antsaklis,et al.  An introduction to intelligent and autonomous control , 1993 .

[59]  James S. Albus,et al.  A reference model architecture for intelligent systems design , 1993 .

[60]  Pascal Fua,et al.  Incremental Construction of Local D.E.M for an Autonomous Planetary Rover , 1993 .

[61]  Laurent Moll,et al.  Real time correlation-based stereo: algorithm, implementations and applications , 1993 .

[62]  Georges Giralt,et al.  The French Planetary Rover Vap: Concept And Current Developments , 1992, Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[63]  Larry H. Matthies,et al.  Stereo vision for planetary rovers: Stochastic modeling to near real-time implementation , 1991, Optics & Photonics.

[64]  Nasser Kehtarnavaz,et al.  Visual control of an autonomous vehicle (BART)-the vehicle-following problem , 1991 .

[65]  K. E. Olin,et al.  Autonomous cross-country navigation: an integrated perception and planning system , 1991, IEEE Expert.

[66]  Douglas E. McGovern,et al.  Experience and results in teleoperation of land vehicles , 1991 .

[67]  M. Hebert,et al.  Hierarchical terrain representations for off-road navigation , 1991 .

[68]  David Lavery,et al.  Navigation of military and space unmanned ground vehicles in unstructured terrains , 1991 .

[69]  Walter A. Aviles.  Issues in Mobile robotics: The Unmanned Ground Vehicle Program TeleOperated Vehicle , 1990 .

[70]  D. Feng,et al.  Implementation of dynamic obstacle avoidance on the CMU NavLab , 1990, 1990 IEEE International Conference on Systems Engineering.

[71]  Takeo Kanade,et al.  3-D Vision Tech-niques for Autonomous Vehicles , 1988 .

[72]  Robert C. Bolles,et al.  Proceedings of the 4th international symposium on Robotics Research , 1988 .

[73]  John G. Harris,et al.  Autonomous cross-country navigation with the ALV , 1988, Proceedings. 1988 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[74]  E D Dickmanns,et al.  AUTONOMOUS HIGH SPEED ROAD VEHICLE GUIDANCE BY COMPUTER VISION , 1987 .

[75]  David G. Morgenthaler,et al.  Obstacle Avoidance On Roadways Using Range Data , 1987, Other Conferences.

[76]  Tsu-Shuan Chang,et al.  An Obstacle Avoidance Algorithm For An Autonomous Land Vehicle , 1987, Other Conferences.

[77]  Douglas W. Gage,et al.  Ground Vehicle Convoying , 1987, Other Conferences.

[78]  H. K. Nishihara,et al.  PRISM: A Practical Mealtime Imaging Stereo Matcher , 1984, Other Conferences.

[79]  G. N. Saridis,et al.  Intelligent robotic control , 1983 .

[80]  Joe P. Golden,et al.  Terrain Contour Matching (TERCOM): A Cruise Missile Guidance Aid , 1980, Optics & Photonics.

[81]  Hans P. Moravec.  Obstacle avoidance and navigation in the real world by a seeing robot rover , 1980 .

[82]  A. J. Richardsons,et al.  DISTINGUISHING VEGETATION FROM SOIL BACKGROUND INFORMATION , 1977 .

[83]  Alan M. Thompson.  The Navigation System of the JPL Robot , 1977, IJCAI.

[84]  R. Kauth,et al.  The tasselled cap - A graphic description of the spectral-temporal development of agricultural crops as seen by Landsat , 1976 .

[85]  Richard Willstätter,et al.  Untersuchungen über chlorophyll , 1907 .