Terrain-based robot navigation using multi-scale traversability indices

The concepts of Local, Regional, and Global Traversability Indices have been introduced recently [1, 8-9]. These indices represent the suitability of a terrain for traversal by a mobile robot at different scales of resolution. This paper utilizes these indices to develop a navigation strategy for a mobile robot traversing a challenging terrain. The traversability indices form the basis of three navigational behaviors; namely, Traverse-Local, Traverse-Regional, and Traverse-Global behaviors. These behaviors are blended with the Seek-Goal behavior to ensure that the mobile robot reaches the goal safety while avoiding obstacles and impassable terrain segments. The paper is concluded by an illustrative graphical simulation study(1).