17th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics - ISER 2020, Valletta (Malta). 15-18 November 2021
Summary:
We propose a framework for resilient autonomous navigation in perceptually challenging unknown environments with mobility-stressing elements such as uneven surfaces with rocks and boulders, steep slopes, negative obstacles like cliffs and holes, and narrow passages. Environments are GPS-denied and perceptually-degraded with variable lighting from dark to lit and obscurants (dust, fog, smoke). Lack of prior maps and degraded communication eliminates the possibility of prior or off-board computation or operator intervention. This necessitates real-time on-board computation using noisy sensor data. To address these challenges, we propose a resilient architecture that exploits redundancy and heterogeneity in sensing modalities. Further resilience is achieved by triggering recovery behaviors upon failure. We propose a fast settling algorithm to generate robust multi-fidelity traversability estimates in real-time. The proposed approach was deployed on multiple physical systems including skid-steer and tracked robots, a high-speed RC car and legged robots, as a part of Team CoSTAR’s effort to the DARPA Subterranean Challenge, where the team won 2nd and 1st place in the Tunnel and Urban Circuits, respectively.
DOI: 
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71151-1_15
Published in Experimental Robotics, pp: 161-173, ISBN: 978-3-030-71150-4
Publication date: 2021-03-28.
Citation:
R. Thakker, N. Alatur, D.D. Fan, J. Tordesillas Torres, M. Paton, K. Otsu, O. Toupet, A. Agha-mohammadi, Autonomous off-road navigation over extreme terrains with perceptually-challenging conditions, 17th International Symposium on Experimental Robotics - ISER 2020, Valletta (Malta). 15-18 November 2021. In: Experimental Robotics: The 17th International Symposium, ISBN: 978-3-030-71150-4
Download this paper