Terrain Topology-Informed Motion Planning for Tactical UGVs
Jyotirmoy Mukherjee, Giri M. Kumar, Hannah White, Andrea L’Afflitto, Corina Sandu · 2024
This paper presents a novel guidance system for autonomous unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) operating in unknown, potentially contested environments. This system applies to UGVs relying on onboard sensors only and operating in GNSS-denied environments since it only requires a point cloud map of the environment, which is formed as the vehicle proceeds. Furthermore, the location and threat capabilities of the opponents, if any, are unknown. The proposed guidance system enables those classical tactics being put in place by ground forces and law enforcement agents operating in the presence of potential threats. Numerical simulations in highly realistic point cloud maps display the applicability of the proposed results.