All-Weather Perception for Small Autonomous UGVs

摘要

For the TARDEC-funded Daredevil Project, iRobot Corporation is developing capabilities that will allow small UGVs to navigate autonomously in adverse weather and in foliage. Our system will fuse sensor data from ultra wideband (UWB) radar, LIDAR, stereo vision, GPS, and INS to build maps of the environment showing which areas are passable (e.g. covered by tall grass) and which areas must be avoided (i.e. solid obstacles). In Phase I of this project, we demonstrated that UWB radar sensors can see through precipitation, smoke/fog, and foliage and detect solid obstacles. In Phase II, we are integrating all of these sensors with an iRobot PackBot. By the end of Phase II, we will demonstrate a fully-autonomous Daredevil PackBot that can avoid obstacles, build maps, and navigate to waypoints in all-weather conditions and through foliage.