A volumetric representation for obstacle detection in vegetated terrain

This paper presents a method for 3-D based obstacle detection on autonomous vehicles navigating in vegetated environments. At its core three different methods processing the surrounding occupancy, taken at separate stages and volumetric resolutions, are combined to a reliable and broad solution. Geometric relationships are evaluated at a coarse, yet robust, volumetric representation to form an initial assessment on obstacles. Then, a more careful evaluation takes place, at finer resolutions, to determine which obstacles are part of the scene´s vegetation, thus not real obstacles. Field experiments are shown to validate the method´s applicability on two different autonomous vehicles: a water surface robot and a terrestrial four-wheeled one.