Planning and reasoning for autonomous vehicle control

Abstract

A reasoning system to support the planning and control requirements of an autonomous land vehicle is described. This system is designed specifically to handle diverse terrain with maximal speed, efficacy, and versatility. the hierarchical architecture for this system is presented along with the detailed algorithms, heuristics, and planning methodologies for the component modules. the architecture is structured such that lower-level modules perform tasks requiring greatest immediacy, while higher-level modules perform tasks involving greater assimilation of sensor data, making use of large amounts of a priori knowledge. In describing the component modules of this system, specific techniques for mission planning, map-based route planning, local terrain navigation, and reflexive vehicle control are presented. These techniques have been demonstrated both in a detailed realtime simulation and on a small indoor robotic vehicle.