Autonomous Mapless Navigation on Uneven Terrains

Abstract

We propose a new method for autonomous navigation in uneven terrains by utilizing a sparse Gaussian Process (SGP) based local perception model. The SGP local perception model is trained on local ranging observation (pointcloud) to learn the terrain elevation profile and extract the feasible navigation subgoals around the robot. Subsequently, a cost function, which prioritizes the safety of the robot in terms of keeping the robot’s roll and pitch angles bounded within a specified range, is used to select a safety-aware subgoal that leads the robot to its final destination. The algorithm is designed to run in real-time and is intensively evaluated in simulation and real-world experiments. The results compellingly demonstrate that our proposed algorithm consistently navigates uneven terrains with high efficiency and surpasses the performance of other planners. The implementation of our method, including the supplementary video showing the experimental and real-world results, is available at https://rb.gy/3ov2r8.