Unmanned Ground Vehicle Two-Level Planning Technology Assessment

Abstract

Abstract : The recently concluded 8-year Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) pursued technologies to support tactical behaviors of unmanned ground systems as a way to illustrate advances in the research program thrust areas of perception, intelligent control, and Soldier-machine interface. In April 2009, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory conducted an experiment at Fort Indiantown Gap, PA, to measure the capability of current autonomous navigation planning algorithms to solve complex terrain challenges previously not achievable under the local planning approach used in Demo III, the forerunner program and baseline for the RCTA. The principal focus was to evaluate the relative performance of three planning algorithms representing the span of research from Demo III to the closing months of the RCTA.