Continuous Acquisition ofThree-Dimensional Environment Information forTracked Vehicles onUnevenTerrain

Localization andmapping areessential elements in thedesign ofmobile robots usedforsearch andrescue mission. Localization isakey-function ofremotecontrol andmapping inan unstructured environment. However, ingeneral, odometry intracked vehicles isambiguous because ofthetrack slippage. Tosolve this problem, wedeveloped athree-dimensional gyro-based odometry thatconsiders thecompensation ofslippage on thebasis ofan empirical model. Themethod wassuccessfully implemented ina tracked vehicle, anditsvalidity wasconfirmed byinitial tests inreal environments. Mapping isalso veryimportant inasearching task. A small three-dimensional laser range scannerprovides operators and rescue crews with awealth ofinformation forunderstanding environ- ments. However, toobtain this information, theoperators mustwait a fewseconds andhalt therobot's operation. Tosolve this problem, we propose thecontinuous acquisition ofthree-dimensional environment information fortracked vehicles using thethree-dimensional gyro- based odometry reported above. Inthis paper, odometry andcontin-F 1 r uousacquisition methods areintroduced forusebytracked vehicles operating inhostile environments.