8,044 research outputs found
Localization in Unstructured Environments: Towards Autonomous Robots in Forests with Delaunay Triangulation
Autonomous harvesting and transportation is a long-term goal of the forest
industry. One of the main challenges is the accurate localization of both
vehicles and trees in a forest. Forests are unstructured environments where it
is difficult to find a group of significant landmarks for current fast
feature-based place recognition algorithms. This paper proposes a novel
approach where local observations are matched to a general tree map using the
Delaunay triangularization as the representation format. Instead of point cloud
based matching methods, we utilize a topology-based method. First, tree trunk
positions are registered at a prior run done by a forest harvester. Second, the
resulting map is Delaunay triangularized. Third, a local submap of the
autonomous robot is registered, triangularized and matched using triangular
similarity maximization to estimate the position of the robot. We test our
method on a dataset accumulated from a forestry site at Lieksa, Finland. A
total length of 2100\,m of harvester path was recorded by an industrial
harvester with a 3D laser scanner and a geolocation unit fixed to the frame.
Our experiments show a 12\,cm s.t.d. in the location accuracy and with
real-time data processing for speeds not exceeding 0.5\,m/s. The accuracy and
speed limit is realistic during forest operations
How to teach a van to drive: an undergraduate perspective on the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge
This paper describes how a team of undergraduate volunteers from California Institute of Technology (Caltech) developed a robotic vehicle that can navigate completely autonomously through the Mojave Desert. Called Alice, the vehicle was Caltech's entry to the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge which aimed to generate the technology needed to build and program an unmanned ground vehicle through 130 miles of difficult terrain completely autonomously in under ten hours. Although Alice failed to win the competition, she did succeed in her original purpose of teaching a new generation of students about engineering, how to apply theory to the real world, how to debug and deal with shortcomings and schedules, and most importantly, how to work as a team on a complex problem
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