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Unmanned Ground Vehicles This project is no longer active. Heads: Martial Hebert, Anthony (Tony) Stentz, and Chuck Thorpe Contact: Martial Hebert (hebert@ri.cmu.edu) Mailing address: Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute 5000 Forbes Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Associated center: VASC

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Project Description

We are developing autonomous navigation capabilities for mobile robots driving in complex, unstructured outdoor terrain. Ultimately, the goal of this work is for teams of robots to be able to drive fully autonomously over long distances, i.e., many miles, in unknown terrain. This project is part of DoD Demo III program. The target mobile robot platform for this project is designed by the Demo III prime integrator, Robotic Systems Technology (RST). The technology developed at CMU was also demonstrated using retrofit HMMWVs as part of the Navlab project.

In this project we are specifically interested in the following technical areas:

• World Model Representations: Integration of multiple sources of information into a comprehensive world model, including cost and obstacle maps, terrain types, object types, risk maps, etc.
• Intelligent Behaviors: Advanced behaviors for autonomous navigation such feature tracking, stealthy driving.
• Sensing for Hazard Detection and Terrain Typing: Advanced techniques for obstacle detection in rough terrain, particularly negative obstacles, and for terrain typing and interpretation.
• Map Fusion: Fusion of data from maps from different vehicles and different sensors. This area also includes the use of map registration techniques to compensate for position estimate discrepancy between vehicles.

Past members

	Name	Title	Email Address
	Barry Brummit	PhD Student, RI
	Peng Chang	PhD Student, RI
	Terrence W Fong	Postdoctoral Fellow
	Martial Hebert	Professor	hebert@ri.cmu.edu
	Daniel Huber	Systems Scientist	dhuber@cs.cmu.edu
	Alonzo Kelly	Associate Professor	alonzo@ri.cmu.edu
	Anthony (Tony) Stentz	Research Professor/Assoc Dir NREC	tony+@cmu.edu
	Chuck Thorpe	Dean, Qatar Campus	thorpe@qatar.cmu.edu

Past Sub-projects

A Reactive System for Off-Road Autonomous Driving - We have developed an integrated obstacle avoidance system for on-road driving for avoiding discrete obstacles, or for off-road driving for avoiding untraversable regions of terrain.