Perception and Autonomous Navigation Using <italic>a Priori</italic> Data

Autonomous Navigation for military unmanned ground vehicles requires the ability to act without human intervention in increasingly difficult environments such as off-road terrain and military operations in urban terrain (MOUT). One method to accomplish this is through the combination of a local perception sensor suite with an a priori route planner and a local guidance algorithm that provides an automated obstacle detection, classification, and avoidance capability. This paper will detail the feasibility of this approach based on preliminary test results.