4D/RCS sensory processing and world modeling on the Demo III experimental unmanned ground vehicles

The success of the Army Research Lab Demo III project at Ft. Indiantown Gap in November, 2001 suggests that autonomous driving by unmanned ground vehicles under tactical conditions is achievable within this decade. Laser range imaging sensors have been developed to provide dense range images that enable autonomous vehicles to build an internal geometric model of the terrain and objects within the environment. Real-time value-based planning algorithms have been developed that enable the autonomous vehicle to replan its intended path through the environment many times per second. The 4D/RCS system architecture has been validated as an open, modular, hierarchical, multi-resolutional integration architecture and design methodology for unmanned ground vehicles.