A collaborative navigation system for autonomous vehicle in flat terrain

A collaborative navigation framework is proposed for autonomous unmanned ground vehicles, which can generate obstacle-free path and guide the vehicle to its goal rapidly in flat terrain. The framework is composed of some function modules, such as sensors, map, path planner and the controller. It can realize the collaborative control between the autonomous driving mode and the remote artificial intervention mode, so humans are allowed to extend their physical capabilities to the unmanned vehicle in the emergency. Path planner is designed for vehicle dynamic navigation by fusing the global map and SICK laser scanner information. Experimental results show that the proposed framework is efficient and can be used in known or unknown flat terrain.