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Terramax[Trade]: Team Oshkosh Urban Robot TerraMaxTM: Team Oshkosh Urban Robot ••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••• Yi-Liang Chen, Venkataraman Sundareswaran, and Craig Anderson Teledyne Scientific & Imaging Thousand Oaks, California 91360 e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Alberto Broggi, Paolo Grisleri, Pier Paolo Porta, and Paolo Zani VisLab, University of Parma Parma 43100, Italy e-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] John Beck Oshkosh Corporation Oshkosh, Wisconsin 54903 e-mail: [email protected] Received 22 February 2008; accepted 28 August 2008 Team Oshkosh, composed of Oshkosh Corporation, Teledyne Scientific and Imaging Com- pany, VisLab of the University of Parma, Ibeo Automotive Sensor GmbH, and Auburn University, participated in the DARPA Urban Challenge and was one of the 11 teams selected to compete in the final event. Through development, testing, and participation in the official events, we experimented and demonstrated autonomous truck operations in (controlled) urban streets of California, Wisconsin, and Michigan under various cli- mate and traffic conditions. In these experiments TerraMaxTM, a modified medium tactical vehicle replacement (MTVR) truck by Oshkosh Corporation, negotiated urban roads, in- tersections, and parking lots and interacted with manned and unmanned traffic while observing traffic rules. We accumulated valuable experience and lessons on autonomous truck operations in urban environments, particularly in the aspects of vehicle control, perception, mission planning, and autonomous behaviors, which will have an impact on the further development of large-footprint autonomous ground vehicles for the military. Journal of Field Robotics 25(10), 841–860 (2008) C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). • DOI: 10.1002/rob.20267 842 • Journal of Field Robotics—2008 In this article, we describe the vehicle, the overall system architecture, the sensors and sensor processing, the mission planning system, and the autonomous behavioral controls implemented on TerraMax. We discuss the performance of some notable autonomous be- haviors of TerraMax and our experience in implementing these behaviors and present results of the Urban Challenge National Qualification Event tests and the Urban Chal- lenge Final Event. We conclude with a discussion of lessons learned from all of the above experience in working with a large robotic truck. C 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 1. INTRODUCTION feel that large autonomous vehicles are critical for enabling autonomy in military logistics operations. Team Oshkosh entered the DARPA Urban Challenge Team Oshkosh utilized a vehicle based on the U.S. with a large-footprint robotic vehicle, TerraMaxTM, Marine Corps MTVR, which provides the majority a modified medium tactical vehicle replacement of the logistics support for the Marine Corps. The in- (MTVR) truck. By leveraging our past experience and tention is to optimize the autonomous system design success in previous DARPA Challenges, the com- such that the autonomy capability can be supplied bined multifaceted expertise of the team members, in kit form. All design and program decisions were and the support of a DARPA Track A program award, made considering not only the Urban Challenge re- we demonstrated various autonomous vehicle be- quirements, but eventual fielding objectives as well. haviors in urban environments with excellent per- Our vehicle was modified to optimize the formance, passed through many official tests at the control-by-wire systems in providing a superior low- National Qualification Event (NQE), and qualified for level control performance based on lessons learned the Urban Challenge Final Event (UCFE). TerraMax from the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge (Braid, completed the first four submissions in mission 1 Broggi, & Schmiedel, 2006; Sundareswaran, Johnson, of the UCFE before being stopped after a failure in & Braid, 2006). Supported by a suite of carefully se- the parking lot due to a software bug. We brought lected and military-practical sensors and perception TerraMax to the UCFE test site in Victorville in processing algorithms, our hierarchical state-based December 2007, where TerraMax completed success- behavior engine provided a simple yet effective ap- fully three missions totaling more than 78 miles in 7 h proach in generating the autonomous behaviors for and 41 min. urban operations. Through the development, testing, Team Oshkosh is composed of Oshkosh Corpora- and participation in official events, we have exper- tion, Teledyne Scientific and Imaging Company, Vis- imented and demonstrated autonomous truck op- Lab of the University of Parma, Ibeo Automotive erations in (controlled) urban streets of California, Sensor GmbH, and Auburn University. Oshkosh pro- Wisconsin, and Michigan under various climate con- vided the vehicle, program management, and over- ditions. In these experiments, TerraMax negotiated all design direction for the hardware, software, and urban roads, intersections, and parking lots and in- control systems. Oshkosh integrated all the elec- teracted with manned and unmanned traffic while trical and mechanical components and developed observing traffic rules. the low- and midlevel vehicle control algorithms In this article, we present our experience and and software. Teledyne Scientific and Imaging Com- lessons learned from autonomous truck operations pany developed the system architecture, mission and in urban environments. In Section 2 we summa- trajectory planning, and autonomous behavior gener- rize the vehicle and hardware implementation. In ation and supervision. The University of Parma’s Vis- Section 3 we present the overall system architecture Lab developed various vision capabilities. Ibeo Auto- and its modules. In Section 4 we describe TerraMax’s motive Sensor GmbH provided software integration sensor and perception processing. In Section 5 we of the LIDAR system. Auburn University provided present TerraMax’s autonomous behavior generation evaluation of the global positioning system/inertial and supervision approach. In Section 6 we discuss measurement unit (GPS/IMU) package. TerraMax’s field performance and experience in the Although substantial hurdles must be overcome NQE and the UCFE. We comment on lessons learned in working with large vehicles such as TerraMax, we in Section 7. Journal of Field Robotics DOI 10.1002/rob Chen et al.: TerraMaxTM: Team Oshkosh Urban Robot • 843 Figure 1. TerraMax: the vehicle. 2. TERRAMAX: THE VEHICLE AND 2.2. Computing Hardware HARDWARE SYSTEMS We opted for ruggedized COTS computing platforms 2.1. Vehicle Overview to address the computing needs of TerraMax. Two The TerraMax vehicle (see Figure 1) is a modified A-Plus Mobile A20-MC computers with Intel Core version of a standard Oshkosh MTVR Navy trac- Duo processors running Windows XP Pro were used tor,1 which comes with a rear steering system as for autonomous vehicle behavior generation and con- standard equipment. The MTVR platform was de- trol. The four Vision personal computers (PCs) use signed for and combat tested by the U.S. Marine SmallPC Core Duo computers running Linux Fedora. Corps. We converted the vehicle to a 4 × 4 version One PC is dedicated to each vision camera system by removing the third axle and by shortening the (i.e., trinocular, close-range stereo, rearview, and frame rail and rear cargo bed. The TAK-4TM indepen- lateral). Low-level vehicle controller and body con- dent suspension allowed rear axle steering angles to troller modules are customized Oshkosh Command ® be further enhanced to deliver curb-to-curb turning Zone embedded controllers and use the 68332 and diameters of 42 ft, equivalent to the turning diam- HC12X processors, respectively. To meet our objec- eter of a sport utility vehicle. In addition to the tives of eventual fielding, all the computing hard- enhancement of turning performance, Oshkosh de- ware was housed in the storage space beneath the veloped and installed low-level controllers and passenger seat. actuators for “by-wire” braking, steering, and power- train control. Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) com- puter hardware was selected and installed for the 2.3. Sensor Hardware vision system and autonomous vehicle behavior 2.3.1. LIDAR Hardware functions. TerraMax incorporated a LIDAR system from Ibeo Automobile Sensor, GmbH, that provides a 360-deg 1Oshkosh MTVR. http://www.oshkoshdefense.com/pdf/Oshkosh field of view with safety overlaps (see Figure 2). MTVR brochure 07.pdf Two ALASCA XT laser scanners are positioned on Journal of Field Robotics DOI 10.1002/rob 844 • Journal of Field Robotics—2008 Figure 2. LIDAR coverage of TerraMax (truck facing right). Figure 3. Vision coverage of TerraMax (truck facing right). Systems displayed: Trinocular (orange) looking forward from 7 to 40 m, stereo front and stereo back (purple) monitoring a 10 × 10 m area on the front of the truck and 7 × 5 m in the back, Rearview (blue) monitoring up to 50 m behind the truck, and lateral (green) looking up to 130 m. Journal of Field Robotics DOI 10.1002/rob Chen et al.: TerraMaxTM: Team Oshkosh Urban Robot • 845 the front corners of the vehicle, and one ALASCA 2.3.3. GPS/INS XT laser scanner is positioned in the center of the Using a Novatel GPS receiver with Omnistar HP cor- rear. Each laser scanner scans a 220-deg horizontal rections (which provides 10-cm accuracy in 95% of field. Outputs of the front scanners are fused at the cases) as a truth measurement in extensive tests un- low
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