Route Navigation in the Urban Grand Challenge with Compromised GPS

Abstract

The DARPA Urban Challenge is providing an opportunity for interested scientists to compete in designing and proving an unmanned vehicle.The autonomous vehicle must avoid collisions, operate in compromised conditions and be robust and independent of human operators. Navigation may be achieved by a varied number of methods. Most will rely on Global Positioning System (GPS) for waypoints, checkpoints and general travel. A route file will be provided for the test site that contains information related to GPS coordinates throughout the course. Vehicles must safely navigate to checkpoints while maintaining road ruleswithsafety.IntheeventthatGPSislostorcompromised,thevehiclesmuststillnavigate to the checkpoints while determining traversable pathways. Optional techniques have been developed in order to navigate without GPS. We build a map of all of the waypoints along with other route information. Whenever we need to navigate to a checkpoint or gate in the absence of GPS, we identify the location we want to head to and use that as a directional bias compared to our current location. We then follow road rules to get through correct gates to the checkpoint using modified orienteering techniques.