Behavior planning of an unmanned ground vehicle with actively articulated suspension to negotiate geometric obstacles

The behavior control method was usually adapted for controlling the suspension configuration which determines the traversability of the UGV with actively articulated suspension. In this paper, we proposed a method of configuration planning of the suspension without any detail geometric data of terrain. The terrain was estimated by the traces of each wheel and the behavior plans for the desired upper level behavior were set up against the constraints of the terrain. Also, an optimal suspension configuration was calculated based on the quasi-static stability and power consumption, and plans for the suspension behavior were made. Validity of the proposed method was checked by simulation using some off-the-shelf programs, and showed that the behavior planning without geometric features of terrain and simplification of the behavior planning for obstacle negotiation were possible.