Navigation of Mobile Robots in Natural Environments: Using Sensor Fusion in Forestry

• Main Authors: Jürgen Rossmann, Petra Krahwinkler, Christian Schlette
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: International Institute of Informatics and Cybernetics 2010-06-01
• Series: Journal of Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics
• Subjects: GPS; mobile robots; Sensor Fusion; Forest; Particle Filter; navigation
• Online Access: http://www.iiisci.org/Journal/CV$/sci/pdfs/GT118XD.pdf

Navigation using GPS is a common strategy which cannot provide the desired accuracy in forests. In the forestry of North Rhine- Westphalia (Germany) algorithms are developed to delineate single trees from remote sensing data. These generated tree maps can be used to create a virtual testbed. Different kinds of sensor data can be merged to form a "visual GPS" system which improves accuracy for the navigation of autonomous vehicles in the forest. Algorithms were developed, which provide localization results accurate enough to allow navigation to a single tree.