A RUNTIME MONITOR FOR PLATFORM PROTECTION AGAINST SKID-STEER UNTRIPPED ROLLOVERS

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) that autonomously maneuver over off-road terrain are susceptible to a loss of stability through untripped rollovers. Without human supervision and intervention, untripped rollovers can damage the UGV and render it unusable. We create a runtime monitor that can provide protection against rollovers that is independent of the type of high-level autonomy strategy (path planning, navigation, etc.) used to command the platform. In particular, we present an implementation of a predictive system monitor for untripped rollover protection in a skid-steer robotic platform. The system monitor sits between the UGV’s autonomy stack and the platform, and it ensures that the platform is not at risk of rollover by intercepting mobility commands sent by the autonomy stack, predicting platform stability, and adjusting the mobility commands to avoid potential rollovers. We demonstrate our implementation through experiments with skid-steer UGVs in Gazebo simulation and physical experiments.

Citation: E. Dietrich, S. Pohland, D. Genin, A. Schmidt, G. Vallabha, A. Composto, M. Randolph, “A Runtime Monitor for Platform Protection Against Skid-steer Untripped Rollovers,” In Proceedings of the Ground Vehicle Systems Engineering and Technology Symposium (GVSETS), NDIA, Novi, MI, Aug. 15-17, 2023.