A second major effort is currently underway toward the development of vehicles with autonomous capabilities. The Autonomous Land Vehicle and Advanced Ground Vehicle Technology programs highlighted the first efforts in autonomous vehicles. The second push is fueled by the Office of the Secretary of Defense's (OSD) Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) program. The Surrogate Teleoperated Vehicle and Demo...

Unmanned aerial and ground vehicle teams present a majoropportunity for expanded operation over individual autonomous vehicles alone. The different perspectives available for sensors, the different operating ranges and payload capabilities, and the ability to observe a target environment from all angles at once all add up to significant improvements in ability to search for and track targets, t...

This thesis deals with the teleoperation of a ground vehicle, specifically the construction processes associated with actuating the vehicle and the computer systems necessary for its control. The primary objectives of this thesis are to present the successes and failures of developing a ground vehicle platform to be used for teleoperation, to outline the computer architecture needed for wireles...

NONLINEAR DYNAMICS OF LONGITUDINAL GROUND VEHICLE TRACTION By Brian John Olson The purpose of this study is to investigate and understand the nonlinear dynamics of longitudinal ground vehicle traction. Specifically, the performance of rubber-tired automobiles under straight-ahead braking and acceleration conditions is discussed in detail. Two vehicle-traction models are considered—a quarter-car...

I he military has an anticipated need for a remotely controlled ground T system to perform reconnaissance; surveillance; target acquisition; patrolling; and nuclear, biological, and chemical (NBC) detection. In particular, the U.S. Army Infantry School would like the system to operate in the most dangerous areas of the modem battlefield, open terrain that is highly trafficable. This has led to ...

We present a deep learning based reactive controller that uses a simple network architecture requiring few training images. Despite its simple structure and small size, our network architecture, called ControlNet, outperforms more complex networks in multiple environments using different robot platforms. We evaluate ControlNet in structured indoor environments and unstructured outdoor environme...

We investigated the fundamental limits to the performance of a laser vibrometer that is mounted on a moving ground vehicle. The noise floor of a moving laser vibrometer consists of speckle noise, shot noise, and platform vibrations. We showed that speckle noise can be reduced by increasing the laser spot size and that the noise floor is dominated by shot noise at high frequencies (typically gre...

Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) have advantages over people in a number of different applications, ranging from sentry duty, scouting hazardous areas, convoying goods and supplies over long distances, and exploring caves and tunnels. Despite recent advances in electronics, vision, artificial intelligence, and control technologies, fully autonomous UGVs are still far from being a reality. Curren...