Hazard avoidance for high-speed mobile robots in rough terrain

Unmanned ground vehicles have important applications in high speed rough terrain scenarios. In these scenarios, unexpected and dangerous situations can occur that require rapid hazard avoidance maneuvers. At high speeds, there is limited time to perform navigation and hazard avoidance calculations based on detailed vehicle and terrain models. This paper presents a method for high speed hazard avoidance based on the "trajectory space," which is a compact model-based representation of a robot's dynamic performance limits in rough, natural terrain. Simulation and experimental results on a small gasoline-powered unmanned ground vehicle demonstrate the method's effectiveness on sloped and rough terrain. (C) 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.