Offroad navigation using adaptable motion patterns

This paper presents a navigation system which is able to steer an electronically controlled ground vehicle to given destinations considering all obstacles in its vicinity. The approach is designed for vehicles without a velocity controlled drivetrain and without an odometry system, making it especially useful for typical remote-controlled vehicles without upgrading the motor controllers. The vehicle is controlled by sets of commands, each set representing a specific maneuver. These sets are then combined in a tree-building procedure to form trajectories towards the given destination. While the sets of commands are executed the vehicle's movement is measured to refine the prediction used for path generation. This enables the approach to adapt to surface alterations. The technique requires a precise position estimation, which is provided in our implementation by a 3D laser mapping based relative localization system. We tested our approach using a 400kg EOD robot in an out door environment. The experiments confirmed that our navigation system is able to control the robot to its destination while avoiding obstacles and adapting to different ground surfaces.