• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.359-364
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• 2012

Real-Time Traversability should be analyzed from the equiped sensors' data in real time for autonomous outdoor navigation. However, it is difficult to find out such traversability that considers the terrain roughness and the vehicle dynamics especially in case of skid type vehicle. The traversability based on real time dynamic analysis was proposed to solve such problem but in navigation with strait driving path. To adapt the method into the navigation with curved driving path, a path following controller should be incorporated into the dynamic model even though it cause the real time problem. In this paper, a dynamic model is proposed to solve the real time problem in the traversability analysis based on real time dynamic simualtion. The dynamic model contains the control dummy which is connected to the vehicle body with a universal joint to follow the curved path without controller. Simulation and experimental results on $6{\times}6$ articulated unmanned ground vehicle demonstrate the method's effectiveness and applicability into the traversability analysis on terrain with bumps.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.449-455
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• 2014

This paper presents a method for developing a TM (Traversability Map) from a DTM (Digital Terrain Model) collected by remote sensors of autonomous mobile robots. Such a map can be used to plan traversable paths and estimate navigation speed quantitatively in real time for robots capable of performing autonomous tasks over rough terrain environments. The proposed method consists of three parts: a DTM partition module which divides the DTM into equally spaced patches, a terrain information module which extracts the slope and roughness of the partitioned patches using the curve fitting and the fractal-based triangular prism method, and a traversability analysis module which assesses traversability incorporating with extracted terrain information and fuzzy inference to construct a TM. The potential of the proposed method is validated via simulation works over a set of fractal DTMs.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.251-257
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• 2012

Unmanned ground vehicles have important military, reconnaissance, and materials handling application. Many of these applications require the UGVs to move at high speeds through uneven, natural terrain with various compositions and physical parameters. This paper presents a framework for high speed autonomous navigation based on the integrated real time traversability. Specifically, the proposed system performs real-time dynamic simulation and calculate maximum traversing velocity guaranteeing safe motion over rough terrain. The architecture of autonomous navigation is firstly presented for high-speed autonomous navigation. Then, the integrated real time traversability, which is composed of initial velocity profiling step, dynamic analysis step, road classification step and stable velocity profiling step, is introduced. Experimental results are presented that demonstrate the method for a $6{\times}6$ autonomous vehicle moving on flat terrain with bump.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.12 no.5
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• pp.549-556
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• 2009

One of the basic technology for implementing the autonomy of UGV(Unmanned Ground Vehicle) is a path planning algorithm using obstacle and raw terrain information which are gathered from perception sensors such as stereo camera and laser scanner. In this paper, we propose a generation method of DVGM(Directional Velocity Grid Map) which have traverse speed of UGV for the five heading directions except the rear one. The fuzzy system is designed to generate a resonable traveling speed for DVGM from current patch to the next one by using terrain slope, roughness and obstacle information extracted from raw world model data. A simulation is conducted with world model data sampled from real terrain so as to verify the performance of proposed fuzzy inference system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.233-236
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• 2008

Recently, the development and application of unmaned robots are increasing in various fields including surveillance and reconnaissance, planet exploration and disaster relief. Unmaned robots are usually controlled from distance using radio communications but they should be equipped with autonomous travelling function to cope with unexpected terrains and obstacles. This means that unmanned robots should be able to evaluate terrain's characteristics quantitatively using mounted sensors so as to traverse harsh natural terrains autonomously. For this purpose, this paper presents an algorithm for extracting terrain information from elevation maps as an early step of traversability analysis. Slope and roughness information are extracted from a world terrain map based on least squares method and fractal theory, respectively. The effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is verified on both fractal and real terrain maps.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.116-128
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• 2013

This paper focuses on development of a testbed for analysis of robot-terrain interaction on rough terrain and also, through one wheel driving experiments using this testbed, prediction of maximum velocity and acceleration of UGV. Firstly, from the review regarding previous researches for terrain modeling, the main variables for measurement are determined. A testbed is developed to measure main variables related to robot-terrain interaction. Experiments are performed on three kinds of rough terrains (grass, gravel, and sand) and traction-slip curves are obtained using the data of the drawbar pull and slip ratio. Traction-slip curves are used to predict driving performance of UGV on rough terrain. Maximum velocity and acceleration of UGVs are predicted by the simple kinematics and dynamics model of two kinds of 4-wheel mobile robots. And also, driving efficiency of UGVs is predicted to reduce energy consumption while traversing rough terrains.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.41 no.7
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• pp.599-605
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• 2017

For an unmanned vehicle to be driven on the off-road terrain, it is necessary to consider the vehicle's stability. This paper suggests a path tracking controller for simulation of real-time vehicle stability analysis. The path tracking controller uses the preview distance to track the given trajectory. The disturbance moment is estimated using the yaw moment observer, and this information is used for compensation in the yaw moment control. On a curved path, the vehicle's desired velocity is determined from the curvature of the path. Because the vehicle is equipped with six independent motor driven wheels, the driving torques are distributed on all the wheels. The effectiveness of the path tracking controller is verified using ADAMS/MATLAB co-simulation.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.14 no.9
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• pp.909-915
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• 2008

Recently, the interests in the development and application of unmaned robots are increasing in various fields including surveillance and reconnaissance, planet exploration, and disaster relief. Unmaned robots are usually controlled from distance using radio communications but they should be equipped with an autonomous travelling function to cope with unexpected terrains and obstacles. This means that they should be able to evaluate terrain's characteristics quantitatively using mounted sensors so as to traverse harsh natural terrains autonomously. For this purpose, this paper presents a method for extracting terrain information, that is, slope and roughness from elevation maps as a prior step of traversability analysis. Slope is extracted using the curve fitting based on the least squares method and roughness using three metrics and their weighted average. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified on both a fractal map and the world model map of a real terrain.