Abstract
For the autonomous navigation of an unmanned ground vehicle in the rough terrain and combat, the dust environment should necessarily be overcome. Therefore, we propose a robust obstacle detection methodology using laser range sensor and radar. Laser range sensor has a good angle and distance accuracy, however, it has a weakness in the dust environment. On the other hand, radar has not better the angle and distance accuracy than laser range sensor, it has a robustness in the dust environment. Using these characteristics of laser range sensor and radar, we use laser range sensor as a main sensor for normal times and radar as a assist sensor for the dust environment. For fusion of laser range sensor and radar information, the angle and distance data of the laser range sensor and radar are separately transformed to the angle and distance data of virtual range sensor which is located in the center of the vehicle. Through distance comparison of laser range sensor and radar in the same angle, the distance data of a fused virtual range sensor are changed to the distance data of the laser range sensor, if the distance of laser range sensor and radar are similar. In the other case, the distance data of the fused virtual range sensor are changed to the distance data of the radar. The suggested methodology is verified by real experiment.
