Detecting water hazards for autonomous off-road navigation

Larry Henry Matthies; Paolo Bellutta; Mike McHenry

doi:10.1117/12.496942

30 September 2003 Detecting water hazards for autonomous off-road navigation

Larry Henry Matthies, Paolo Bellutta, Mike McHenry

Proceedings Volume 5083, Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology V; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.496942
Event: AeroSense 2003, 2003, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

Detecting water hazards for autonomous, off-road navigation of unmanned ground vehicles is a largely unexplored problem. In this paper, we catalog environmental variables that affect the difficulty of this problem, including day vs. night operation, whether the water reflects sky or other terrain features, the size of the water body, and other factors. We briefly survey sensors that are applicable to detecting water hazards in each of these conditions. We then present analyses and results for water detection for four specific sensor cases: (1) using color image classification to recognize sky reflections in water during the day, (2) using ladar to detect the presense of water bodies and to measure their depth, (3) using short-wave infrared (SWIR) imagery to detect water bodies, as well as snow and ice, and (4) using mid-wave infrared (MWIR) imagery to recognize water bodies at night. For color imagery, we demonstrate solid results with a classifier that runs at nearly video rate on a 433 MHz processor. For ladar, we present a detailed propagation analysis that shows the limits of water body detection and depth estimation as a function of lookahead distance, water depth, and ladar wavelength. For SWIR and MWIR, we present sample imagery from a variety of data collections that illustrate the potential of these sensors. These results demonstrate significant progress on this problem.

Citation Download Citation

Larry Henry Matthies, Paolo Bellutta, and Mike McHenry "Detecting water hazards for autonomous off-road navigation", Proc. SPIE 5083, Unmanned Ground Vehicle Technology V, (30 September 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.496942

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available