A practical approach to robotic design for the DARPA Urban Challenge

Abstract This article presents a practical approach to engineering a robot to effectively navigate in an urban environment. Inherent in this approach is the use of relatively simple sensors, actuators, and processors to generate robot vision, intelligence, and planning. Sensor data are fused from multiple low‐cost, two‐dimensional laser scanners with an innovative rotational mount to provide three‐dimensional coverage with image processing using both range and intensity data. Information is combined with Doppler radar returns to yield a world view processed by a context‐based reasoning control system to yield tactical mission commands forwarded to traditional proportional‐integral‐derivative (PID) control loops. As an example of simplicity and robustness, steering control successfully utilized a relatively simple follow‐the‐carrot guidance approach that has been successfully demonstrated at speeds of 60 mph (97 km/h). The approach yielded a robot that reached the finals of the Urban Challenge and completed approximately 2 h of the event before being forced to withdraw as a result of a global positioning system data failure. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.