Driving with tentacles: Integral structures for sensing and motion

Abstract

In this paper we describe a LIDAR‐based navigation approach applied at both the C‐Elrob (European Land Robot Trial) 2007 and the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge. At the C‐Elrob 2007 the approach was used without any prior knowledge about the terrain and without global positioning system (GPS). At the Urban Challenge the approach was combined with a GPS‐based path follower. At the core of the method is a set of “tentacles” that represent precalculated trajectories defined in the ego‐centered coordinate space of the vehicle. Similar to an insect's antennae or feelers, they fan out with different curvatures discretizing the basic driving options of the vehicle. We detail how the approach can be used for exploration of unknown environments and how it can be extended to combined GPS path following and obstacle avoidance allowing safe road following in case of GPS offsets. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Adaptive tactical behaviour planner for autonomous ground vehicle

“…d. Template based methods plan the trajectory using a set of prior defined trajectory templates. Methods in this category include Bezier curves approach [59], lattice based planners [60], [61], [62] and tentacles based planners [63], [64]. e. Biologically inspired methods plan the trajectory using traditional optimisation techniques.…”

Unmanned Mine of the 21st Centuries

“…The current state of the above set problem is characterized by the use of remoteoperated autonomous complexes with an arrangement in a single operator complex [3][4][5][6][7][8]. Notable examples are the mines in the area of the Pilbara (Western Australia), Quarry Bingham Canyon (Salt Lake City, USA), Mine Kadi-Ridgeway (Australia).…”

Path planning for intelligent wheelchair based on modified tentacles method

“…There are other path planning methods which can satisfy both path following and obstacle avoidance. Driving with tentacles is first introduced for four-wheel vehicles which computes the drivable path as a combination of precalculated circular arcs [8]. Because of the fast-to-implement property of the driving with tentacles method, many research aim to extend on it.…”

“…In the Paper 'Driving with tentacles: Integral Structures for Sensing and Motion' [8], the paths (tentacles) are split into 16 sets of 81 circular arcs because the circular arcs can reasonably well approximate all possible clothoids the vehicle can drive. Each set depends on vehicle's linear speed.…”

“…Each arc represents a possible vehicle trajectory and the length of each arc varies depending on the tentacle number j and the tentacle set number k. In Figure 2.1, a) shows the simulation of tentacle set 0 and b) shows its tentacle number index in [8]. The simulation of tentacle Set 0 is the sketch of the set number 0 of paths of the wheelchair, (0, 0) is the start position of the wheelchair.…”