Planning The Route Of A Robotic Land Vehicle

Algorithm enables experimental robotic land vehicle to follow automatically route computed on basis of terrain-height-map data. Computer executing algorithm merges coarser global topographical data with finer local topographical data obtained through stereoscopic video system as vehicle moves along, then smoothes merged elevation map, interpolates map to evenly-horizontally-spaced grid points, and differentiates map to produce data on slopes and roughness for use in calculations of traversability and optimum route(s). Distance traveled minimized to extent possible consistent with avoidance of obstacles.