Three Dimensional Dynamic Environments Path Planner (3DDEPP)

Planning with dynamic entities is at the core of the "safe ops" risk identified by FCS' Autonomous Navigation System (ANS) and other robotic programs. Autonomous robotic systems will not be extensively deployed unless they can safely operate in environments sharing spaces with other dynamic entities. One of the biggest challenges is that most planning systems do not understand the idea of a dynamic entity. Robotic Research, LLC and General Dynamics Robotic Systems will create a planner for dynamic environments utilizing a 3D planning space (x,y,t) for ground vehicles and a 4D space for aerial vehicles (x,y,z,t). This will include integration of terrain registration into the (x,y,t) planner to provide a mapping between the relative navigation solution and the map navigation solution, development of an ego-graph based extension to the current (x,y,t) planner, developing a complex simulation environment for testing using RIVET and preliminary demonstration of a synchronized prediction planning system.