Driving Autonomously Offroad up to 35 km/h

Published

October 1, 2000

Author(s)

David Coombs, Karl Murphy, Alberto Lacaze, Steven Legowik

Abstract

A robotic HMMWV (a.k.a. "humvee") drives autonomously offroad at speeds up to 35 km/h (10 m/s, 20 mph). Key features of the implementation that enable driving at these speeds are (1) planning the next 20 m with dynamically feasible trajectories, and (2) increasing the lateral clearance to obstacles at higher speeds. Clothoid trajectories are used in planning the vehicle's immediate path. The speed-indexed clearance requirement improves the safety margin for the vehicle over a range of speeds while retaining the ability to maneuver in close quarters when necessary.

Proceedings Title

Proceedings of the 2000 Intelligent Vehicles Conference

Conference Dates

October 4-5, 2000

Conference Location

Dearborn, MI

Conference Title

2000 Intelligent Vehicles Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Download Paper

Local Download

Keywords

Mobility, Robotics & Intelligent Systems, Control, Unmanned Systems, Obstacle Avoidance, Offroad driving, Path planning, Vehicle Control

Citation

Coombs, D. , Murphy, K. , Lacaze, A. and Legowik, S. (2000), Driving Autonomously Offroad up to 35 km/h, Proceedings of the 2000 Intelligent Vehicles Conference, Dearborn, MI, [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=820669 (Accessed October 14, 2025)