Navigation of Mobile Robot in Unstructured Terrain Environments

doi:10.3901/JME.260093

Abstract

Abstract: While significant progress has been made in autonomous navigation of mobile robots in 2D structured terrains, many challenges remain in navigating 3D unstructured environments, such as accurately reflecting terrain features and planning paths that can traverse obstacles. Therefore, a navigation framework for wheeled robots in unstructured terrains is proposed. Firstly, local plane fitting is applied to the surface points of the 3D grid map to capture terrain detail features, enabling evaluation and passability analysis of the surrounding terrain to provide quantitative support for navigation decisions. Secondly, an informed RRT* sampling planning method is employed to design a cost function that considers terrain passability, proposing a 2D sampling and 3D optimization global planning method, IRRT*-TFP, which effectively utilizes terrain information to accurately plan while reducing computational complexity. Finally, an improved dynamic window approach (DWA) is used for local planning, DWA-KPS, which solves the problem of deviating from the global plan and entering dangerous terrains by densifying the global trajectory and adding a trajectory similarity evaluation function, thereby improving navigation quality and safety. Comparative experiments between IRRT-TFP and the A* algorithm, as well as DWA-KPS and the original DWA algorithm, verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms for autonomous navigation in rugged and complex unstructured environments.

Key words: unstructured terrain, navigation, motion planning, mobile robots

CLC Number:

TP242

ZHAO Haoyu, HOU Pengshuai, CHEN Xingquan, SHAO Yule, DONG Qi, CHEN Jie. Navigation of Mobile Robot in Unstructured Terrain Environments[J]. Journal of Mechanical Engineering, 2026, 62(3): 396-406.

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