An Autonomous Control Package for UGVs

We propose building a bolt-on controller for teleoperated robots that provides autonomous operations in collaboration with the human operator. This will include a "follow that" capability where the robot will follow the operator or vehicle at a distance using vision, and a "go there" capability that will follow a path sketched on an image viewed from the robot's navigation camera. We will also explore the possibility of recognizing a small number of hand signals to allow controlling the robot without the screen-based interface. The operator will have full teleoperation capabilities to recover from failures. The system will use stereo vision for obstacle avoidance and visual odometry, avoiding relying on GPS and LADAR which are prone to failures. The operator control unit will be constructed from a standard hand-held computer with a wireless network to the robot. Bluetooth and 802.11 networks will be evaluated with respect to the emissions requirements and desired functionality to select the interface.