Navigation of unmanned vehicles for civil applications within confined spaces

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Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) have been used in natural, terrorists and accidental missions sometimes with success, but more often just confirming their potential. The RCMP, Canada Search & Rescue (SAR) and the military have considered using UGVs for their operations. UGVs did well, during the 9/11 incident but without a huge success as the robots couldn't perform tasks within the collapsed buildings. UGVs have shown relative success in known terrains but no real success otherwise due to a number of reasons but mainly due to their inability to move within unknown complex obstructed indoor and outdoor urban environments and effectively maneuver 2½D & 3D terrains. Based on previous work we will develop navigational tools not available today that when coupled with existing tools will enable UGVs execute missions in the areas of SAR, reconnaissance and urban policing enabling UGVs move autonomously within confined spaces at high speeds. The target applications focus on critical operations aimed at supporting civil protection agencies, fire brigades, EMS, etc. We target two scientific areas: navigation and control. The work will focus on behaviors, goal & strategy selection, and exploration mechanisms that will be tested on SAR, police and surveillance scenarios. The navigation area will initially focus on 2½D and 3D navigation motion. The phases for the next five years include: i) Develop a navigation system for UGVs working in confined 3D spaces; ii) Develop a terrain assessment method for high speed UGVs navigating in unknown 2½D & 3D terrains; and iii) Merge Steps (i) and (ii) into a novel tool taking into consideration the robot's capabilities and the terrain conditions. Step (i) will develop robot motion tools based on the robot's range / visual information and its motion / reconfiguration capabilities. A 3D map of the terrain will be used to develop a dynamic configuration space from where the robot will determine the motions to overcome the terrain conditions. Step (ii) will develop a computationally inexpensive mechanism to estimate the velocity and turn angle of the UGV based on the UGV's parameters and changes in the terrain profile/characteristics.