• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.171-181
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• 2012

Outdoor mobile robots are faced with various terrain types having different characteristics. To run safely and carry out the mission, mobile robot should recognize terrain types, physical and geometric characteristics and so on. It is essential to control appropriate motion for each terrain characteristics. One way to determine the terrain types is to use non-contact sensor data such as vision and laser sensor. Another way is to use contact sensor data such as slope of body, vibration and current of motor that are reaction data from the ground to the tire. In this paper, we presented experimental results on terrain classification using contact sensor data. We made a mobile robot for collecting contact sensor data and collected data from four terrains we chose for experimental terrains. Through analysis of the collecting data, we suggested a new method of terrain feature extraction considering physical characteristics and confirmed that the proposed method can classify the four terrains that we chose for experimental terrains. We can also be confirmed that terrain feature extraction method using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) typically used in previous studies and the proposed method have similar classification performance through back propagation learning algorithm. However, both methods differ in the amount of data including terrain feature information. So we defined an index determined by the amount of terrain feature information and classification error rate. And the index can evaluate classification efficiency. We compared the results of each method through the index. The comparison showed that our method is more efficient than the existing method.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.64-79
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• 1994

In this study, terrain classification, which was done by using the quantitative classification parameters and suitable interpolation method was applied to improve the accuracy of digital elevation models, and to increase its practical use of aerial photogrammetry. A terrain area was classified into three groups using the quantitative classification parameters to the ratio of horizontal, inclined area, magnitude of harmonic vectors, deviation of vector, the number of breakline and proposed the suitable interpolation. Also, the accuracy of digital elevation models was improved in case of large grid intervals by applying combined interpolation suitable for each terrain group. As a result of this study, I have an algorithm to perform the classification of the topography in the area of interest objectively and decided optimal data interpolation scheme for given topography.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 1990

In this study, terrain classification was done by using the quantitative classification parameter and suitable interpolation method was applied to improve the accuracy of digital terrain models and to increase its practical applications. A study area was classified into three groups using the quantitative classification parameters and an interpolation equation suitable for each group was used for economical application of the interpolation method. The accuracy of digital terrain models was improved in case of large grid intervals by applying combined interpolation method suitable for each terrain group.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.372-378
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• 2009

For effective mobility control of unmanned ground vehicles in outdoor off-road environments, terrain cover classification technology using passive sensors is vital. This paper presents a novel method far terrain classification based on color and texture information of off-road images. It uses a neural network classifier and wavelet features. We exploit the wavelet mean and energy features extracted from multi-channel wavelet transformed images and also utilize the terrain class spatial coordinates of images to include additional features. By comparing the classification performance according to applied features, the experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a promising result and potential possibilities for autonomous navigation.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.45 no.6
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• pp.55-59
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• 2008

For effective mobility control of UGV(unmanned ground vehicle), the terrain cover classification is an important component as well as terrain geometry recognition and obstacle detection. The vision based terrain cover classification algorithm consists of pre-processing, feature extraction, classification and post-processing. In this paper, we present a method to classify terrain covers based on the color and texture information. The color space conversion is performed for the pre-processing, the wavelet transform is applied for feature extraction, and the SVM(support vector machine) is applied for the classifier. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has a promising classification performance.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.339-348
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• 2010

One of the requirements for autonomous vehicles on off-road is to move stably in unstructured environments. Such capacity of autonomous vehicles is one of the most important abilities in consideration of mobility. So, many researchers use contact and/or non-contact methods to determine a terrain whether the vehicle can move on or not. In this paper we introduce an algorithm to classify terrains using visual information(one of the non-contacting methods). As a pre-processing, a contrast enhancement technique is introduced to improve classification of terrain. Also, for conducting classification algorithm, training images are grouped according to materials of the surface, and then Bayesian classification are applied to new images to determine membership to each group. In addition to the classification, we can build Traversability map specified by friction coefficients on which autonomous vehicles can decide to go or not. Experiments are made with Load-Cell to determine real friction coefficients of various terrains.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.683-688
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• 2010

The ability to navigate autonomously in off-road terrain is the most critical technology needed for Unmanned Ground Vehicles(UGV). In this paper, we present a method for vision-based terrain cover classification using DCT features. To classify the terrain, we acquire image from a CCD sensor, then the image is divided into fixed size of blocks. And each block transformed into DCT image then extracts features which reflect frequency band characteristics. Neural network classifier is used to classify the features. The proposed method is validated and verified through many experiments and we compare it with wavelet feature based method. The results show that the proposed method is more efficiently classify the terrain-cover than wavelet feature based one.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.221-229
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• 2011

Road design needs to ensure the economic justification and the preservation of nature by adapting road alignment to the natural terrain. Though current road design guideline only defines a flat and a mountainous terrain, classification including rolling terrain should be needed while considering the fact that about 25.8% of our land can be classified as rolling and the road design guideline of developed countries such as United States and Australia has a terrain classification including rolling in order to take a deep consideration on the natural environment. The study attempts to draw a criterion to classify the assumed three individual terrains in a quantitative way by using a index like the undulation of the original ground profile. The study carried out a case study based on a conceptual frame developed in the study as an approach to differentiate each terrain. As a result, the study suggests a criterion in that a flat terrain has less than 40 meters in the difference between the highest and the lowest point of original ground from 40 to 60 meters for rolling terrain, and greater than 60 meters for mountainous respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.53-61
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• 1989

In this paper the quantitative classification parameters of terrain which can be practicable to the interpolation of digital terrain model forming a regular grid pattern have been suggested and objective terrain classification have been established by making a cluster analysis using these parameters. Also, interpolation suitable to the classification of terrain has been used by making a descriminant alaysis from description parameters of terrains. The terrain classification in this paper was dependent upon two parameters of the ratio horizontal area to inclined area and the magnitude of harmonic vectors. And the studying area was seperated to three groups of terrains by these two parameters. Three groups of terrains could be classified into the discriminant functions. By determining the ratio of area and harmonic vector magnitude in any terrains using the above discriminant function, it was possible to discriminate the terrains to apply the interpolation practicable to the terrain characteristics.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.5
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• pp.894-902
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• 2010

This paper presents a vision-based robust off-road terrain classification method against environmental variation. As a supervised classification algorithm, we applied a neural network classifier using wavelet features extracted from wavelet transform of an image. In order to get over an effect of overall image feature variation, we adopted environment sensors and gathered the training parameters database according to environmental conditions. The robust terrain classification algorithm against environmental variation was implemented by choosing an optimal parameter using environmental information. The proposed algorithm was embedded on a processor board under the VxWorks real-time operating system. The processor board is containing four 1GHz 7448 PowerPC CPUs. In order to implement an optimal software architecture on which a distributed parallel processing is possible, we measured and analyzed the data delivery time between the CPUs. And the performance of the present algorithm was verified, comparing classification results using the real off-road images acquired under various environmental conditions in conformity with applied classifiers and features. Experiments show the robustness of the classification results on any environmental condition.