Obstacle detection for unmanned ground vehicle on uneven terrain

We propose an obstacle detection algorithm for unmanned ground vehicle on uneven terrain. The key ideas of the proposed algorithm are the use of two-layer laser range data to calculate the gradient of a target, which is characterized as either ground or obstacles. The proposed obstacle detection algorithm includes 4-steps: 1) Obtain the distance data for each angle from multiple lidars or a multi-layer scan lidar. 2) Calcualate the gradient for each angle of the uneven terrain. 3) Determine ground or obstacle for each angle on the basis of reference gradient. 4) Generate a new distance data for each angle for a virtual laser scanner. The proposed algorithm is verified by various experiments.