Implementation of a sensor fusion-based object-detection component for an autonomous outdoor vehicle.

摘要

Nothing in life is certain. However the more information you have, and the better prepared you are, the more favorable the outcome. To this extent, for an autonomous vehicle to operate in the real world, it must have good information about its surroundings. For a vehicle to avoid obstacles, it must first be able to detect them. Generated data are only as good as the sensors that penetrate the vehicle's environment.; This doctoral research is the extension into the real world of the work started in Takao Okui's doctoral dissertation, Development of a Multi-Layered Map Management System Utilizing the Nonhomogeneous Markov Chain Approach. In his research, the area around the vehicle is tessellated into a local grid (the local grid map), and the range sensors are characterized by two methods. The first uses the physical properties to determine which grid cells should be updated. The second uses fuzzy modeling of the sensor's uncertainty to actually update the grid cell using a nonhomogeneous Markov chain.; Undertaking what Okui started in simulation, the techniques are implemented on a single board computer that runs on a Kawasaki Mule 500. Unlike a simulation, the constraints of the real world cannot be ignored. These include limits of storage, computational efficiency, maintainability, and the ease of adding additional, and diverse sensors.; Finally, this research provides the first implementation of the Object Detection Component (ODC) in the Department of Defense Joint Architecture for Unmanned Ground Vehicles (JAUGS). The goal of JAUGS is to present a unified architecture for the military's unmanned ground vehicles. The architecture is currently a work-in-progress, and this research will help to develop the interface and the information passed between the obstacle detection component and the requesting subsystem.*; *This dissertation includes a CD that is multimedia (contains text and other applications not available in printed format). The CD requires the following applications: Adobe Acrobat; Microsoft Office.