Surface roughness measurement for outdoor mobile robotic applications

Abstract

The ability to measure terrain roughness is essential for safe and efficient navigation of outdoor mobile robots. This paper describes a prototype system consisting of a colour camera and a laser stripe generator for the measurement of ground surface roughness. With outdoor mobile robotic applications in mind, the system provides a cheap, fast and robust alternative to other methods of roughness measurement. In this paper, details are given of the hardware con guration, the method of roughness characterisation, a simple navigation strategy demonstrating the ability of terrain roughness measurements to aid in navigation, and some preliminary results.