A Review of Off-Road Datasets, Sensor Technologies and Terrain Traversability Analysis

Autonomous ground navigation research and application has seen development and improvement in urban and structured environments with an increase in publicly available published datasets. However, autonomous ground navigating on off-road and unstructured conditions is still challenging due to the limited datasets, difficulties caused by environmental conditions, diverse terrain types and sensor limitations which affect vehicle perception. The recently available published public offroad datasets are presented here, integrated with the sensor technologies used and terrain traversability analysis and techniques. This study identifies the gaps in the existing datasets and examines the limitations of sensing technologies used and the challenges of terrain traversability analysis. In doing so, we suggest recommendations for creating more comprehensive off-road datasets incorporating advanced sensor technologies and refined terrain traversability analysis methods. The review provides insightful knowledge to the research community focused on off-road autonomous navigation with what kind of offroad data needs to be collected, the sensor requirements and terrain traversability techniques to improve autonomous ground navigating in off-road and unstructured conditions.