Behavior-Based Control for Safe and Robust Navigation of an Unimog in Off-Road Environments

Abstract

Autonomously driving vehicles become more and more present in in road traffic, but in cluttered off-road environments the technological challenges for autonomous driving are currently much higher. Nonetheless, commercial vehicles operating autonomously in off-road environments can be easier economically exploited than within on-road scenarios due weaker legal restrictions. The project Driving of Commercial Vehicles in Off-Road Environments on the Example of the Unimog develops control concepts for a safe and robust navigation of commercial vehicles focusing on low speed locomotion in unstructured environments as construction sites, agricultural applications, forest, or search and rescue areas. Thereby, a stepwise automation is emphasized starting with driver-action recommendations in form of assistance systems evolving to fully autonomous solutions. This paper presents the behavior-based control architecture REACTiON tailored to the described scenarios and challenges. It provides standardized interfaces for different abstraction levels of control and perception. The architecture is applied to an Unimog special truck. Therefore a reactive low level safety system, differential, gear, and tire-pressure controllers, tailored to the vehicle, are implemented and tested in a simulation environment.