Path Planner for Dynamic Environments

ABSTRACT: Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) have shown promise enhancing a number of military missions; however, most successful autonomous systems have been employed in highly structured environments. To enable operations in militarily relevant, unstructured environments at an operational tempo, a number of obstacle avoidance and planning challenges must be overcome. A viable autonomous system should require minimal supervisory control and operate across a variety of environments from off-road cross-country terrain to dynamic urban environments. TORC Robotics, LLC (TORC) is working to address these challenges in a number of active projects with the Air Force Research Labs, the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE) and the Marine Corps Warfighting Lab (MCWL). The enhanced behaviors and perception capabilities integrated to support the combat-airstrip survey mission will further the goal of enabling operations in military-relevant, dynamic environments. BENEFIT: The research under this SBIR will provide the benefit of extended feedback and new runway survey capabilities to the AFSOC end AFCEC communities. Commercial applications will evolve from additional development for continuous runway surveys and monitoring.