Road Bank Estimation on Uneven Terrain for Unmanned Ground Vehicles

Author(s):  
Lowell S. Brown ◽  
Jeremy J. Dawkins ◽  
Ryan S. Hill ◽  
David M. Bevly

Knowledge of non-negligible bank angle is important for preventing rollover on uneven terrain. This article shows the effect of uneven terrain on rollover and explores a method to calculate the bank of the uneven terrain. An Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) is implemented to estimate the total roll of the vehicle. Information on the relative roll of the vehicle is acquired from suspension geometry and suspension deflections. The combination of EKF estimated roll and measured suspension deflections yields an estimate of the road bank angle.

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 4682
Author(s):  
Wojciech Dawid ◽  
Krzysztof Pokonieczny

The determination of the route of movement is a key factor which enables navigation. In this article, the authors present the methodology of using different resolution terrain passability maps to generate graphs, which allow for the determination of the optimal route between two points. The routes are generated with the use of two commonly used pathfinding algorithms: Dijkstra’s and A-star. The proposed methodology allows for the determination of routes in various variants—a more secure route that avoids all terrain obstacles with a wide curve, or a shorter route, which is, however, more difficult to pass. In order to achieve that, two functions that modify the value of the index of passability (IOP), which is assigned to the primary fields that the passability map consists of, have been used. These functions have a β parameter that augments or reduces the impact of the applied function on IOP values. The paper also shows the possibilities of implementation of the methodology for the movement of single vehicles or unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) by using detailed maps as well as for determining routes for large military operational units moving in a 1 km wide corridor. The obtained results show that the change in β value causes the change of a course of the route as expected and that Dijkstra’s algorithm is more stable and slightly faster than A-star. The area of application of the presented methodology is very wide because, except for planning the movement of unmanned ground vehicles or military units of different sizes, it can be used in crisis management, where the possibility of reaching the area outside the road network can be of key importance for the success of the salvage operation.


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