Guidance Method without Terrain Information for an Exploration Rover

Abstract

This paper describes the guidance method considering irregular land of the planetary exploration rover in an unknown environment. Some exploration methods in the environment with many obstacles and uneven ground surfaces have been proposed. In this study, we propose a guidance method to detect and avoid the area that is difficult to be detected by an external sensor such as a camera or a radar. An observer based on Disturbance Accommodating Control (DAC) method is used to detect the areas. The potential function method is applied to the avoidance of the area. Furthermore, EKF-SLAM is treated to estimate self-location and construct a map in a more realistic environment. The effectiveness of the proposed method guidance method is verified numerically and experimentally.