Abstract Gully mapping techniques successfully identify gullies over a large range of breadths and depths in complex landscapes but practices for estimating gully volumes need further development. gap-interpolation estimation volume does not often factor landscape microtopography the generation new surface. These approaches can thus overestimate classical volumes, averaging depressions, or unde...

Successful off-road autonomous navigation by an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) requires reliable perception and representation of natural terrain. While perception algorithms are used to detect driving hazards, terrain mapping algorithms are used to represent the detected hazards in a world model a UGV can use to plan safe paths. There are two primary ways to detect driving hazards with percepti...

This paper presents a methodology for motion planning in outdoor environments that takes into account specific characteristics of the terrain. Instead of decomposing the robot configuration space into “free” and “occupied”, we consider the existence of several regions with different navigation costs. In this paper, costs are determined experimentally by navigating the robot through the regions ...

Surface roughness parameters were determined for harvested wheat fields over level terrain at the US Department of Energy’s Cloud and Radiation Testbed (CART) site in north-central Oklahoma. Measurements of wind speed and temperature were made by radiosondes and instruments mounted on 2 and 10 m towers during neutral and unstable atmospheric conditions in the atmospheric surface layer. Surface ...

Natural substrates are often composed of particulates of varying size, from fine sand to pebbles and boulders. Robot locomotion on such heterogeneous substrates is complicated in part due to large force and kinematic fluctuations introduced by heterogeneities. To systematically explore how heterogeneity affects locomotion, we study the movement of a hexapedal robot (15 cm, 150 g) in a trackway ...

Mud volcanoes are defined as main elements of geological structures and ways through and within which buried argillaceous loose sediments and lithified rocks. The Gharniaregh Tappeh and Naftelijeh mud volcanoes are the most attractive geomorphological phenomena in continental which appear along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea. The Naftelijeh mud volcano is more active than Gharniaregh–Tapp...

The effect of anodic oxidation of a NiTi shape memory alloy in sulfuric acid electrolyte on its surface characteristics was studied. Surface roughness was measured by roughness tester. Surface morphology was studied using optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Corrosion behavior was specified by recording Potentiodynamic polarization cur...