Dynamic trajectory planning for a cross-country navigator
Barry L. Brumitt, R. Craig Coulter, Anthony Stentz · Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1993
Autonomous cross-country navigation requires planning algorithms which supports rapid traversal of challenging terrain while maintaining vehicle safety. The central theme of the work is the implementation of a planning system which solves this problem. The planning system uses a recursive trajectory generation algorithm, which generates spatial trajectories and then heuristically modifies them to achieve safe paths around obstacles. Velocities along the spatial trajectory are then set to insure a dynamically stable traversal. Ongoing results are presented from the system as implemented on the NAVLAB II, an autonomous off-road vehicle at Carnegie Mellon University. The planning system was successful in achieving 5.1 km autonomous test runs with obstacle avoidance on rugged natural terrain at speeds averaging 1.8 m/s. Runs of up to 0.3 km at 4.5 m/s were achieved when only checking for obstacles.