LIDAR and stereo combination for traversability assessment of off-road robotic vehicles

What is it about?

Reliable assessment of terrain traversability is a key issue for driving automation towards driverless vehicles. In this paper, we show a method to combine laser with stereo ranging to detect traversable ground in outdoor settings.

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Why is it important?

The proposed approach works on-line by continuously adapting the model of the ground. It has general validity and it can be applied to any 3D sensor combination. In the context of this research, it is demonstrated for LIDAR and stereo data, although they differ in resolution, accuracy, and field of view.