Puddle Detection for Avoidance Path Planning of Wheeled Mobile Robot Using Laser Reflection Intensity

Avoiding obstacles is one of the essential functions of outdoor mobile robots. Detection of three-dimensional obstacles and avoidance methods have been studied actively. However, planar obstacles, such as puddles, have been ignored generally. Avoiding puddles is important to prevent electrical problems, odometry error, and feeling displeasure. This paper proposes a method to detect puddles by using laser reflection intensity obtained from 2D LRF and a method for path planning to avoid the puddles. Laser reflection intensities of several road surfaces are investigated, and the effectiveness of the proposed methods are confirmed through experiments with a real-robot.