Executing reactive behavior for autonomous navigation

Complex problems, such as driving, can be solved more easily by decomposing them into smaller subproblems, solving each sub-problem, and then integrating the solutions. In the case of an autonomous vehicle, the integrated system should be able to “react” in real time to a changing environment and to “reason” about ways to achieve its goals. This paper describes the approach taken on the UMass Mobile Perception Laboratory (MPL) to integrate independent processes (each solving a particular aspect of the navigation problem) into a fully capable autonomous vehicle