Experimental Study of High-speed Rough-terrain Mobile Robot Models for Reactive Behaviors

High-speed mobile robots have many important applications in rough terrain. At high speeds, it is difficult to guarantee safe robot motion using traditional control and planning techniques. This paper presents an experimental high-speed rover system for studying reactive behavior control to avoid potentially dangerous situations. The method consists of sensor-triggered maneuvers that have been shown by a priori model-based analysis to be safe. The paper discusses vehicle and terrain models for model-based analysis. Experimental results show that behaviors based on detailed models can accurately predict the dynamics of mobile robots in rough terrain.