抄録
To increase the success rate of space exploration missions by rovers, usually several different types of sensors are mounted. This study, however, discusses the possibility and limitation of autonomous movement of a planetary exploration rover by using only a Laser-Range-Finder (LRF). Terrain recognition by only a LRF implies a possibility for a rover to keep moving, because a mounted computer can handle the LRF outputs in real time without any support from a ground station on Earth. In this paper, as a possibility of a scanning LRF to substitute for an image sensor, recognition of rover's slip and stuck from scanning LRF outputs is examined. As a preliminary study for an experiment using a real LRF, computer simulations are conducted by using virtual LRF outputs for a variety of terrains numerically generated with random numbers. To simply the problem, the LRF outputs are assumed to be obtained by a stationary rover in this paper. The results indicate that travel distance of a rover can be estimated with less than 13 % of error.
