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Perception of rugged terrain for a walking robot: true confessions and new directions
R. Hoffman and E. Krotkov
Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems '91, Intelligence for Mechanical Systems, Vol. 3, November, 1991, pp. 1505 - 1510.

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The Ambler is an autonomous orthogonal walking robot that operates in rugged environments. The mechanism has two stacks and six circulating legs. On top of the Ambler is mounted a laser scanner to obtain 3D data of the local terrain. It is designed for planetary exploration. During the course of walking experiments unexpected shortcomings in the robot's perception system were noted. Unusual perception sensor behavior, random noise sources, and interaction of the perception system with other system components caused both minor errors and large failures in the system. This paper analyzes the sources of the perception system errors, presents solutions to these problems, and proposes a design for a more robust perception system.

Associated center: FRC
Associated project: Ambler

R. Hoffman and E. Krotkov, "Perception of rugged terrain for a walking robot: true confessions and new directions," Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems '91, Intelligence for Mechanical Systems, Vol. 3, November, 1991, pp. 1505 - 1510.

@inproceedings{Hoffman_1991_3653,
   author = "R. Hoffman and Eric Krotkov",
   title = "Perception of rugged terrain for a walking robot: true confessions and new directions",
   booktitle = "Proceedings of the IEEE/RSJ International Workshop on Intelligent Robots and Systems '91, Intelligence for Mechanical Systems",
   month = "November",
   year = "1991",
   volume = "3",
   pages = "1505 - 1510"
}