Scott Triglia: Two Software Improvements for Autonomous Navigation

Scott Triglia worked under Gabriel Elkaim and John Connors on upgrading the pathplanning software on the Overbot, an autonomous land vehicle. The Overbot is a 6x6 off-road vehicle which is fitted with a number of sensors including a laser scanner, a radar scanner and a gps unit. Software allows the Overbot to autonomously navigate through a series of waypoints, as well as being driven remotely through a software interface.

Scott's work focused on upgrading the software responsible for safely navigating the Overbot around obstacles. One upgrade inflated obstacles in the Overbot's path by slightly more than the width of the Overbot. This allowed the Overbot to only consider its centerpoint when avoiding obstacles, since the obstacles were much smaller in reality. He also allowed the Overbot to compute the error between its actual position from GPS, and the path it is attempting to follow. This allows the Overbot to compensate for inconsistencies between the path and reality and follow a more ideal path.