Related papers: TerraPN: Unstructured Terrain Navigation using Onl…
Terrain classification is an important problem for mobile robots operating in extreme environments as it can aid downstream tasks such as autonomous navigation and planning. While RGB cameras are widely used for terrain identification,…
We present a novel autonomous robot navigation algorithm for outdoor environments that is capable of handling diverse terrain traversability conditions. Our approach, VLM-GroNav, uses vision-language models (VLMs) and integrates them with…
This paper presents an autonomous navigation system for ground robots traversing aggressive unstructured terrain through a cohesive arrangement of mapping, deliberative planning and reactive behaviour modules. All systems are aware of…
Terramechanics plays a critical role in the areas of ground vehicles and ground mobile robots since understanding and estimating the variables influencing the vehicle-terrain interaction may mean the success or the failure of an entire…
A key challenge in off-road navigation is that even visually similar terrains or ones from the same semantic class may have substantially different traction properties. Existing work typically assumes no wheel slip or uses the expected…
When working alongside human collaborators in dynamic and unstructured environments, such as disaster recovery or military operation, fast field adaptation is necessary for an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to perform its duties or learn…
We present a novel system, AdVENTR for autonomous robot navigation in unstructured outdoor environments that consist of uneven and vegetated terrains. Our approach is general and can enable both wheeled and legged robots to handle outdoor…
Understanding the traversability of terrain is essential for autonomous robot navigation, particularly in unstructured environments such as natural landscapes. Although traditional methods, such as occupancy mapping, provide a basic…
Mobile robot navigation is typically regarded as a geometric problem, in which the robot's objective is to perceive the geometry of the environment in order to plan collision-free paths towards a desired goal. However, a purely geometric…
In the realm of autonomous mobile robots, safe navigation through unpaved outdoor environments remains a challenging task. Due to the high-dimensional nature of sensor data, extracting relevant information becomes a complex problem, which…
The field of autonomous navigation for unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) is in continuous growth and increasing levels of autonomy have been reached in the last few years. However, the task becomes more challenging when the focus is on the…
We present a terrain traversability mapping and navigation system (TNS) for autonomous excavator applications in an unstructured environment. We use an efficient approach to extract terrain features from RGB images and 3D point clouds and…
Unstructured environments such as mountains, caves, construction sites, or disaster areas are challenging for autonomous navigation because of terrain irregularities. In particular, it is crucial to plan a path to avoid risky terrain and…
Identifying the physical properties of the surrounding environment is essential for robotic locomotion and navigation to deal with non-geometric hazards, such as slippery and deformable terrains. It would be of great benefit for robots to…
Efficient navigation through uneven terrain remains a challenging endeavor for autonomous robots. We propose a new geometric-based uneven terrain mapless navigation framework combining a Sparse Gaussian Process (SGP) local map with a…
We study the problem of bipedal robot navigation in complex environments with uncertain and rough terrain. In particular, we consider a scenario in which the robot is expected to reach a desired goal location by traversing an environment…
Achieving reliable and safe autonomous driving in off-road environments requires accurate and efficient terrain traversability analysis. However, this task faces several challenges, including the scarcity of large-scale datasets tailored…
Robot navigation in unstructured environments requires multimodal perception systems that can support safe navigation. Multimodality enables the integration of complementary information collected by different sensors. However, this…
Driving energy consumption plays a major role in the navigation of mobile robots in challenging environments, especially if they are left to operate unattended under limited on-board power. This paper reports on first results of an…
A major challenge with off-road autonomous navigation is the lack of maps or road markings that can be used to plan a path for autonomous robots. Classical path planning methods mostly assume a perfectly known environment without accounting…