Rough terrain mobile robotics from design to motion control and planning

Summary form only given. Rough terrain robotics is a new emerging research field that has stimulated a high number of works during recent years with the aim to provide more autonomy for outdoor vehicles. The talk will discuss the critical role of design and control in the development of autonomous off-road mobile robot. We will focus on articulated wheeled structure and particularly hybrid wheeled-legged locomotion, and show how they can be useful for autonomous outdoor applications, because articulated wheeled rovers offers both advantages of wheels and legs i.e. velocity for the first and obstacles crossing for the second. Their legs kinematics and compliance will be optimized for ensuring both reactive obstacle crossing and postural balance. High-level control will be also addressed by presenting recent advances in path planning and motion generation for mobile robots navigating autonomously over rough terrain. The main issue here is how we can obtain efficient prediction of rover stability and mobility for on-line path and motion planning.