Accession Number:

ADA183879

Title:

1986 Year End Report for Road Following at Carnegie-Mellon

Descriptive Note:

Annual rept. 15 Jan 1986-14 Jan 1987

Corporate Author:

CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIV PITTSBURGH PA ROBOTICS INST

Personal Author(s):

• Thorpe, Charles
• Kanade, Takeo

Report Date:

1987-05-01

Pagination or Media Count:

65.0

Abstract:

This report describes progress in vision and navigation for outdoor mobile robots at the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute during 1986. This research was sponsored by DARPA as part of the Strategic Computing Initiative. Our work during 1986 culminated in two demonstration systems. The first system drives the Terregator, a desk-sized robot with six wheels, around the network of campus sidewalks. This system, named Sidewalk II, uses a video camera to follow sidewalks and a laser rangefinder to detect and avoid stairs. Sidewalk II makes extensive use of map data, for visual predictions and for path planning. The second system, Park Navigation, uses the Navlab, our new Chevrolet Van robot. The Park system concentrated on vision for following difficult roads, including curves, dirt and leaves, shadows, puddles, and both moving and fixed obstacles. We developed computer vision techniques for handling difficult roads, and built range finder programs for detecting and avoiding obstacles. Keywords Autonomous navigation.

Descriptors:

• *ROBOTS
• AUTONOMOUS NAVIGATION
• BARRIERS
• CAMERAS
• DEMONSTRATIONS
• LASERS
• METHODOLOGY
• MOBILE
• MOTION
• OUTDOOR
• PATHS
• PLANNING
• PREDICTIONS
• RANGE FINDING
• ROADS
• ROBOTICS
• VISION

Subject Categories:

• Cybernetics
• Navigation and Guidance

Distribution Statement:

APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE