Improved Traversal for Planetary Rovers through Forward Acquisition of Terrain Trafficability
Yashodhan Nevatia, Jérémi Gancet, F. Bulens, T. Voegele, U. Sonsalla, Chakravarthini Mini Saaj, William A. Lewinger, M. Matthews, F.J.C. Cabrera, Yanqiu Gao, Elie Allouis, Barbara Imhof, Stephen Ransom, Linda Marleine Richter, Krzysztof Skocki · Lincoln Repository (University of Lincoln) · 2013
Current operations of planetary rovers, especially the planning and execution of traverse operations, rely on human analysis and estimation of non-geometric hazards based on images captured by the rover.Despite the use of advanced path planning algorithms capable of avoiding obstacles, this greatly limits daily traverse distances.This paper presents a system capable of safe traversal beyond the range of the sensors through forward sensing of terrain trafficability, resulting in improved traversal speeds.