Off-road Robotics—An Overview

This article gives an overview of the current state of research in the field of off-road robotics. It focuses on techniques used in the areas of perception, environment representation, as well as navigation, and introduces different types of robot control systems. A presentation of different applications is given along with an outlook on future developments.

[1]  Helmut Fischer,et al.  New electro-optical mixing and correlating sensor: facilities and applications of the photonic mixer device (PMD) , 1997, Other Conferences.

[2]  Hugh F. Durrant-Whyte,et al.  Simultaneous localization and mapping: part I , 2006, IEEE Robotics & Automation Magazine.

[3]  Donald W. Mathis,et al.  Terrain Classification Using Texture For The ALV , 1989, Other Conferences.

[4]  Tai Sing Lee,et al.  Statistical correlations between two-dimensional images and three-dimensional structures in natural scenes. , 2003, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[5]  Markus Ax,et al.  Combining Distance and Modulation Information for Detecting Pedestrians in Outdoor Environment using a PMD Camera , 2010 .

[6]  B. Krauskopf,et al.  Proc of SPIE , 2003 .

[7]  James S. Albus,et al.  NASA/NBS Standard Reference Model for Telerobot Control System Architecture (NASREM) , 1989 .

[8]  ThrunSebastian,et al.  Stanley: The robot that won the DARPA Grand Challenge , 2006 .

[9]  Karsten Berns,et al.  Obstacle detection in mobile outdoor robots - a short-term memory for the mobile outdoor platform ravon , 2007, ICINCO-RA.

[10]  Bernardo Wagner,et al.  Using 3D laser range data for SLAM in outdoor environments , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[11]  Luc Van Gool,et al.  Speeded-Up Robust Features (SURF) , 2008, Comput. Vis. Image Underst..

[12]  Michael Himmelsbach,et al.  Team MuCAR-3 at C-ELROB 2009 , 2009 .

[13]  Shigeo Hirose,et al.  Proposal for automation of humanitarian demining with buggy robots , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[14]  K.-D. Kuhnert Software architecture of the Autonomous Mobile Outdoor Robot AMOR , 2008, 2008 IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium.

[15]  T. Braun Cost-Efficient Global Robot Navigation in Rugged Off-Road Terrain , 2011, KI - Künstliche Intelligenz.

[16]  Daniela Doroftei,et al.  Using robots in hazardous environments: Landmine detection, de-mining and other applications , 2010 .

[17]  Innes A. Ferguson,et al.  Touring Machines: autonomous agents with attitudes , 1992, Computer.

[18]  Alfred Schmitt,et al.  Real-Time Stereo by using Dynamic Programming , 2003, 2004 Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Workshop.

[19]  Simon Lacroix,et al.  Decisional autonomy of planetary rovers , 2007, J. Field Robotics.

[20]  Ibrahim Halatci Vision-based terrain classification and classifier fusion for planetary exploration rovers , 2006 .

[21]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  A Multi-Resolution Pyramid for Outdoor Robot Terrain Perception , 2004, AAAI.

[22]  S. Dubowsky,et al.  Visual, tactile, and vibration-based terrain analysis for planetary rovers , 2004, 2004 IEEE Aerospace Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.04TH8720).

[23]  Ko Nishino,et al.  Factorizing Scene Albedo and Depth from a Single Foggy Image , 2009, 2009 IEEE 12th International Conference on Computer Vision.

[24]  Karsten Berns,et al.  Simulation and control of an autonomous bucket excavator for landscaping tasks , 2010, 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[25]  Miao Liao,et al.  Real-time Global Stereo Matching Using Hierarchical Belief Propagation , 2006, BMVC.

[26]  Stergios I. Roumeliotis,et al.  Slip compensation for a Mars rover , 2005, 2005 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[27]  Paolo Pirjanian,et al.  Behavior Coordination Mechanisms - State-of-the-art , 1999 .

[28]  Emmanuel G. Collins,et al.  Frequency response method for terrain classification in autonomous ground vehicles , 2008, Auton. Robots.

[29]  Jörg P. Müller,et al.  The agent architecture InteRRaP : concept and application , 1993 .

[30]  Luc Van Gool,et al.  SURF: Speeded Up Robust Features , 2006, ECCV.

[31]  N. Hautiere,et al.  Detection of visibility conditions through use of onboard cameras , 2005, IEEE Proceedings. Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, 2005..

[32]  Bernd-Helge Schäfer Control system design schemata and their application in off-road robotics , 2010 .

[33]  Michael Schanz,et al.  Autonome Mobile Systeme 2005, 19. Fachgespräch, Stuttgart, 8./9. Dezember 2005 , 2006, Autonome Mobile Systeme.

[34]  Frank Kirchner,et al.  CESAR: A lunar crater exploration and sample return robot , 2009, 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[35]  Miao Liao,et al.  High-Quality Real-Time Stereo Using Adaptive Cost Aggregation and Dynamic Programming , 2006, Third International Symposium on 3D Data Processing, Visualization, and Transmission (3DPVT'06).

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

[37]  Michael Himmelsbach,et al.  Driving with tentacles: Integral structures for sensing and motion , 2008 .

[38]  Antonio Torralba,et al.  Depth Estimation from Image Structure , 2002, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[39]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  Stanley: The robot that won the DARPA Grand Challenge , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[40]  Andreas Nchter 3D Robotic Mapping: The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem with Six Degrees of Freedom , 2009 .

[41]  Andreas Birk,et al.  Hough based terrain classification for realtime detection of drivable ground , 2008, J. Field Robotics.

[42]  Wolfgang Seemann,et al.  Design and realisation of the highly modular and robust autonomous mobile outdoor robot AMOR , 2007 .

[43]  Sebastian Thrun,et al.  Simultaneous Localization and Mapping , 2008, Robotics and Cognitive Approaches to Spatial Mapping.

[44]  Steven Dubowsky,et al.  Rovers for intelligent, agile traverse of challenging terrain , 2003 .

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

[46]  Hiroshi Murase,et al.  Visibility Estimation in Foggy Conditions by In-Vehicle Camera and Radar , 2006, First International Conference on Innovative Computing, Information and Control - Volume I (ICICIC'06).

[47]  Magnus Egerstedt,et al.  Control-driven mapping and planning , 2007, 2007 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[48]  Michael Bosse,et al.  An Atlas framework for scalable mapping , 2003, 2003 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (Cat. No.03CH37422).

[49]  Ole Ravn,et al.  Traversable terrain classification for outdoor autonomous robots using single 2D laser scans , 2006, Integr. Comput. Aided Eng..

[50]  Karsten Berns,et al.  3D obstacle detection and avoidance in vegetated off-road terrain , 2008, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

[51]  Karsten Berns,et al.  {RAVON} -- The Robust Autonomous Vehicle for Off-road Navigation , 2009 .

[52]  Nicolas Hautière,et al.  Estimation of the Visibility Distance by Stereovision: a Generic Approach , 2005, MVA.

[53]  Yann LeCun,et al.  Online Learning for Offroad Robots: Spatial Label Propagation to Learn Long-Range Traversability , 2007, Robotics: Science and Systems.

[54]  Andreas Nüchter,et al.  3D Robotic Mapping - The Simultaneous Localization and Mapping Problem with Six Degrees of Freedom , 2009, Springer Tracts in Advanced Robotics.

[55]  Alexei A. Efros,et al.  Geometric context from a single image , 2005, Tenth IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV'05) Volume 1.

[56]  Kurt Konolige,et al.  Fast color/texture segmentation for outdoor robots , 2008, 2008 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[57]  Wolfgang Seemann,et al.  Localisation for an outdoor robot by optically measuring the ground movement , 2007 .

[58]  Byron Boots Inferring Depth from Single Images in Natural Scenes , 2006 .

[59]  Karsten Berns,et al.  Topological large-scale off-road navigation and exploration RAVON at the European Land Robot Trial 2008 , 2009, 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[60]  C. Stachniss,et al.  Online Learning for Offroad Robots: Using Spatial Label Propagation to Learn Long-Range Traversability , 2008 .

[61]  Guido Brunnett,et al.  A hybrid LOD based rendering approach for dynamic scenes , 2004, Proceedings Computer Graphics International, 2004..

[62]  Martin Proetzsch Development Process for Complex Behavior-Based Robot Control Systems , 2010 .

[63]  William Whittaker,et al.  A robust approach to high‐speed navigation for unrehearsed desert terrain , 2007 .

[64]  Bernd Brüggemann,et al.  European Land Robot Trial ( ELROB ) Towards a Realistic Benchmark for Outdoor Robotics , 2010 .

[65]  J. Wei,et al.  Autonomous Guidance of a Corn Harvester using Stereo Vision , 2007 .

[66]  Klaus Schilling,et al.  The Small Outdoor Rover MERLIN and Its Assistance System for Tele-operations , 2007, FSR.

[67]  S. Zucker,et al.  Shape-from-shading on a cloudy day , 1994 .

[68]  Howie Choset,et al.  Probabilistic methods for robotic landmine search , 2001, SPIE Optics East.

[69]  Matthijs C. Dorst Distinctive Image Features from Scale-Invariant Keypoints , 2011 .

[70]  Hiroshi Murase,et al.  Raindrop Detection from In-Vehicle Video Camera Images for Rainfall Judgment , 2006, First International Conference on Innovative Computing, Information and Control - Volume I (ICICIC'06).

[71]  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.

[72]  Ashutosh Saxena,et al.  Make3D: Learning 3D Scene Structure from a Single Still Image , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence.

[73]  Ronald C. Arkin,et al.  An Behavior-based Robotics , 1998 .

[74]  Yann LeCun,et al.  A multirange architecture for collision‐free off‐road robot navigation , 2009, J. Field Robotics.

[75]  Roland Siegwart,et al.  Rover control based on an optimal torque distribution - Application to 6 motorized wheels passive rover , 2010, 2010 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[76]  Oliver Wulf,et al.  FAST 3 D SCANNING METHODS FOR LASER MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS , 2003 .

[77]  J. Horn Zweidimensionale Geschwindigkeitsmessung texturierter Oberflächen mit flächenhaften bildgebenden Sensoren , 2006 .

[78]  M. Matarić Situated Robotics , 2002 .

[79]  Karl Iagnemma,et al.  Vibration-based terrain classification for planetary exploration rovers , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[80]  W. James MacLean,et al.  Video-rate stereo depth measurement on programmable hardware , 2003, 2003 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2003. Proceedings..

[81]  Robert C. Bolles,et al.  Mapping, navigation, and learning for off-road traversal , 2009 .

[82]  Christophe Cariou,et al.  Automatic guidance of a four-wheel-steering mobile robot for accurate field operations , 2009 .

[83]  Robert C. Bolles,et al.  Mapping, navigation, and learning for off‐road traversal , 2009, J. Field Robotics.

[84]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Online adaptive rough-terrain navigation vegetation , 2004, IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2004. Proceedings. ICRA '04. 2004.

[85]  Yan Lu,et al.  Appearance contrast for fast, robust trail-following , 2009, 2009 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems.

[86]  Tucker R. Balch,et al.  Behavior-based formation control for multirobot teams , 1998, IEEE Trans. Robotics Autom..

[87]  Sanjiv Singh,et al.  The 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge , 2007 .

[88]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Contrast Restoration of Weather Degraded Images , 2003, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[89]  James S. Albus,et al.  4D/RCS: a reference model architecture for intelligent unmanned ground vehicles , 2002, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

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

[91]  Peter Protzel,et al.  Einfaches Steuerungskonzept für mobile Roboter in dynamischen unstrukturierten Umgebungen , 2005, AMS.

[92]  Steven Dubowsky,et al.  Terrain estimation for high-speed rough-terrain autonomous vehicle navigation , 2002, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[93]  Maja J. Matari,et al.  Behavior-based Control: Examples from Navigation, Learning, and Group Behavior , 1997 .

[94]  Dean A. Pomerleau,et al.  Sensor performance and weather effects modeling for intelligent transportation systems (ITS) applications , 1995, Other Conferences.

[95]  Rodney A. Brooks,et al.  Intelligence Without Reason , 1991, IJCAI.

[96]  Bernardo Wagner,et al.  Control of a Semi-Autonomous UGV Using Lossy Low-Bandwidth Communication , 2010, TA.

[97]  Anthony Stentz,et al.  Using interpolation to improve path planning: The Field D* algorithm , 2006, J. Field Robotics.

[98]  Eiji Nakano,et al.  A fast forest road segmentation for real-time robot self-navigation , 2004, 2004 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) (IEEE Cat. No.04CH37566).

[99]  Peter Seitz,et al.  Robust Optical Time-of-Flight Range Imaging Based on Smart Pixel Structures , 2008, IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I: Regular Papers.

[100]  Richard Szeliski,et al.  A Taxonomy and Evaluation of Dense Two-Frame Stereo Correspondence Algorithms , 2001, International Journal of Computer Vision.

[101]  Karsten Berns,et al.  Using Passages to Support Off-road Robot Navigation , 2009, ICINCO-RA.

[102]  Tommy Chang,et al.  Fusing Ladar and Color Image Information for Mobile Robot Feature Detection and Tracking , 2002 .

[103]  Maja J. Mataric,et al.  Behaviour-based control: examples from navigation, learning, and group behaviour , 1997, J. Exp. Theor. Artif. Intell..

[104]  Thierry Siméon,et al.  Motion generation for a rover on rough terrains , 2001, Proceedings 2001 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Expanding the Societal Role of Robotics in the the Next Millennium (Cat. No.01CH37180).

[105]  Bernd Brüggemann,et al.  CBRNE Reconnaissance with an Unmanned Vehicle - a Semi-Autonomous Approach - , 2010, TA.

[106]  Sven Koenig,et al.  A reactive robot architecture with planning on demand , 2003, Proceedings 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003) (Cat. No.03CH37453).

[107]  Lars Kuhnert,et al.  Sensor-Fusion Based Real-Time 3D Outdoor Scene Reconstruction and Analysis on a Moving Mobile Outdoor Robot , 2011, KI - Künstliche Intelligenz.

[108]  Thomas Hellström,et al.  Autonomous Forest Vehicles: Historic, envisioned, and state-of-the-art , 2009 .

[109]  Ashutosh Saxena,et al.  Learning Depth from Single Monocular Images , 2005, NIPS.

[110]  Paolo Fiorini,et al.  Search and Rescue Robotics , 2008, Springer Handbook of Robotics.

[111]  A.W.M. Smeulders,et al.  Depth Estimation Via Stage Classification , 2008, 2008 3DTV Conference: The True Vision - Capture, Transmission and Display of 3D Video.

[112]  James M. Rehg,et al.  Traversability classification using unsupervised on-line visual learning for outdoor robot navigation , 2006, Proceedings 2006 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, 2006. ICRA 2006..

[113]  Ruigang Yang,et al.  Image-gradient-guided real-time stereo on graphics hardware , 2005, Fifth International Conference on 3-D Digital Imaging and Modeling (3DIM'05).

[114]  Martial Hebert,et al.  A complete navigation system for goal acquisition in unknown environments , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.