Improved Lateral Stability for Unmanned Ground Vehicle Convoys

Under Phase I, Robotic Research, LLC developed and implemented several technologies for Cooperative Localization to Improve Convoy Stability (CLICS) that optimized convoy vehicle tracks by intelligently combining sensor updates of all vehicles in the convoy in a distributed, cooperative localization system. Currently, follower vehicles in the convoy rely either on GPS breadcrumbs from the lead vehicle, or rely on sensing the location of its predecessor and following its path. However, GPS availability and accuracy oftentimes cause the former solution to fail, and accumulated errors in tracking and control in long convoys can cause the latter solution to fail. In Phase I, Robotic Researchs CLICS system overcame these problems by (1) fusing generic inter-vehicle sensing updates from any sensor that can provide relevant information, (2) sharing inter-vehicle sensing and navigation sensing information with the entire convoy, and (3) solving for an optimal path to follow using the shared sensor information.