For many years there has been considerable interest by the scientific, offshore and naval sectors in the design and development of unmanned marine vehicles (UMVs) in order to perform a multitude of different tasks. Much advancement has been realized in this area, however, the need for advanced navigation, guidance and control (NGC) systems for UMVs continues to grow as these sectors now demand ...

One goal of the "Demo III" unmanned ground vehicle program is to enable autonomous nighttime navigation at speeds of up to 10 m.p. h. To perform obstacle detection at night with stereo vision will require night vision cameras that produce adequate image quality for the driving speeds, vehicle dynamics, obstacle sizes, and scene conditions that will be encountered. This paper analyzes the suitab...

This paper presents the AR-Drone quadrotor helicopter as a robotic platform usable for research and education. Apart from the description of hardware and software, we discuss several issues regarding drone equipment, abilities and performance. We show, how to perform basic tasks of position stabilization, object following and autonomous navigation. Moreover, we demonstrate the drone ability to ...

In this article, we evaluate the performance of an iterative registration algorithm for position estimation of Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) operating in unstructured environments. Field data obtained from trials on UGVs traversing undulating outdoor terrain is used to quantify the performance of the algorithm in producing continual position estimates. These estimates are then compared with t...

This paper provides an overview, rationale, design, and prototype implementation of a responsibility advisor for use in autonomous systems capable of lethal target engagement. The ramifications surrounding the potential use of operator overrides is also presented. The results of this research have been integrated into the MissionLab mission specification and demonstrated on a relevant military ...

This paper explores how a ‘learning’ algorithm can be added to UGV’s by giving it the ability to test the terrain through ‘feeling’ using incorporated sensors, which would in turn increase its situational awareness. Once the conditions are measured the system will log the results and a database can be built up of terrain types and their properties (terrain classification), therefore when it com...

Autonomous UGVs (unmanned ground vehicles) has been extensively investigated it’s capabilities for military applications. In order to operate the UGVs on the open fields, they must be able to detect obstacles (eg. holes, stumps, rocks, etc) concealed behind vegetation canopies, as well as to detect surface. Forward looking imaging radar is necessary to autonomous UGVs for collision avoidance an...

Increased navigation speed is desirable for lunar rovers, whether autonomous, crewed or remotely operated, but is hampered by the low gravity, high contrast lighting and rough terrain. We describe lidar based navigation system deployed on NASA’s K10 autonomous rover and to increase the terrain hazard situational awareness of the Lunar Electric Rover crew.