Obstacle Avoidance Strategy and Implementation for Unmanned Ground Vehicle Using LIDAR

Regarding safety, obstacle avoidance has been considered as one of the most important features among ADAS systems for ground vehicles. However, the implementation of obstacle avoidance functions to commercial vehicles are still under progress. In this paper, we demonstrate a complete process of obstacle avoidance strategy for unmanned ground vehicle and implement the strategy on the self-developed Arduino based RC Car. In this process, the sensor LIDAR was used to detect the obstacles on the fore-path. Based on the measured LIDAR data, an optimized path is automatically generated with accommodation of current car position, obstacle locations, car operation capability and global environmental restrictions. The path planning is updated in real time while new or changing obstacles being detected. This algorithm is validated by the simulation results with the RC car. The comparison will be discussed at the end of this paper. The successful implementation of the proposed strategy demonstrates the feasibility of this obstacle avoidance methodology, which can be applied to commercial autonomous vehicle.