The use of terrain traversability indicators in unmanned vehicle control

This paper presents the control system structure for an unmanned rescue mission support vehicle. The vehicle navigation system based on terrain traversability indicators is described. These indicators for the adopted navigation ranges (local, regional, and global) are presented based on fuzzy logic elements.There are two fundamentally different approaches to unmanned vehicle navigation: one based on signals from environment recognition sensors, and the other on terrain map data. Sensor-based navigation systems enable the detection of local or regional threats, have low computational requirements, and are predisposed for use in low-dynamic environments. Furthermore, they do not possess a priori knowledge of the environment, and the information derived from them provides the state of the surroundings at a given moment. On the other hand, navigation systems operating solely on the basis of maps are able to effectively utilize global terrain information. However, they require very accurate information about the vehicle’s location relative to the map and are often inefficient for real-time route planning.
An important issue is therefore the design of an advanced navigation system that will enable traversing long distances in an unrecognized terrain while avoiding all monitored and marked threats in the area. This requires equipping the vehicle with the following elements:
1. short-range sensors (detection of local threats);
2. (…)

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