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Range‐dependent Terrain Mapping and Multipath Planning using Cylindrical Coordinates for a Planetary Exploration Rover
Author(s) -
Ishigami Genya,
Otsuki Masatsugu,
Kubota Takashi
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of field robotics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.152
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4967
pISSN - 1556-4959
DOI - 10.1002/rob.21462
Subject(s) - terrain , lidar , remote sensing , computer science , point cloud , digital elevation model , elevation (ballistics) , weighting , motion planning , computer vision , artificial intelligence , geology , geography , engineering , cartography , medicine , robot , radiology , structural engineering
This paper presents terrain mapping and path‐planning techniques that are key issues for autonomous mobility of a planetary exploration rover. In this work, a LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensor is used to obtain geometric information on the terrain. A point cloud of the terrain feature provided from the LIDAR sensor is usually converted to a digital elevation map. A sector‐shaped reference grid for the conversion process is proposed in this paper, resulting in an elevation map with cylindrical coordinates termed as C 2 DEM. This conversion approach achieves a range‐dependent resolution for the terrain mapping: a detailed terrain representation near the rover and a sparse representation far from the rover. The path planning utilizes a cost function composed of terrain inclination, terrain roughness, and path length indices, each of which is subject to a weighting factor. The multipath planning developed in this paper first explores possible sets of weighting factors and generates multiple candidate paths. The most feasible path is then determined by a comparative evaluation between the candidate paths. Field experiments with a rover prototype at a Lunar/Martian analog site were performed to confirm the feasibility of the proposed techniques, including the range‐dependent terrain mapping with C 2 DEM and the multipath‐planning method.