Computing an unevenness field from 3D laser range data to obtain traversable region around a mobile robot

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Computing unevenness allows robots to perceive their environment quickly in three dimensions. Unevenness detects smallest of discontinuities in the terrain despite the sparse nature of data in radial direction. Since the method works well in spite of the roll and pitch experienced by moving robots and in terrains containing slopes the method suits outdoor wheeled mobile robots and driverless vehicles. Major perception is achieved using only a single sensor. Since unevenness clearly separates objects from ground, it can be further extended to perform segmentation and other object based perception tasks.

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