Rough-terrain traversability for a cylindrical shaped mobile robot

Ground autonomous mini-mobile robots have important potential applications, such as reconnaissance, patrol, planetary exploration and military applications. To accomplish tasks on rough-terrain, control and planning methods must consider the physical characteristics of the vehicle and of its environment. This paper describes recent and current work at Politecnico of Bari in the area of mobile robot rough terrain traversability. A cylindrical shaped vehicle is presented and the dynamic model of its rolling motion on soft terrain is provided and experimentally validated. An experimental framework for estimating tractive effort and for soil parameter identification is presented based on visual methods for measuring vehicle motion parameters. It is shown that these methods can lead to efficient understanding of the mobile robot physical surroundings and could enhance vehicle mobility through integration with control and planning algorithms.