3D obstacle detection and avoidance in vegetated off-road terrain

This paper presents a laser-based obstacle detection facility for off-road robotics in vegetated terrain. In the context of this work the mobile off-road platform RAVON was equipped with a 3D laser scanner and accompanying evaluation routines working on individual vertical scans. Identified terrain characteristics are used to build up a local representation of the environment. Introducing the abstraction concept of virtual sensors the transparent integration of additional terrain information on the basis of standardized behavior modules can be achieved.