Smoothness: propagate a continuous-domain wavefront through the environment, modulate its speed according to traversability ⇒ monotonically increasing crossing-time map ⇒ smooth navigation function Local Repairs: region of influence of each location ⇒ recompute only the shadow of modified nodes Related Work:Field-D* also interpolates, but E* interpolation is user-configurable and it performs fu...

We study spherically symmetric thin-shell wormholes in a string cloud background in (3+1)-dimensional spacetime. The amount of exotic matter required for the construction, the traversability and the stability under radial perturbations, are analyzed as functions of the parameters of the model. Besides, in the Appendices a non perturbative approach to the dynamics and a possible extension of the...

This paper presents a navigation method for a mobile robot in urban environments. The navigation method employs a socalled Polar Traversability Index (PTI) to evaluate terrain traversal property along a specific direction and guide the robot’s motion. In the navigation system, a 2-D Laser Rangefinder (LRF) is used to produce terrain maps in various formats, such as 3-D point-cloud map, 2.5 D el...

Autonomous robot navigation in unknown natural terrain is the key requirement of a robotic system such as a rover as the natural terrain is unpredictable. For safe and robust navigation a robot must possess onboard intelligence to perceive the terrain ahead so that it can avoid hazardous areas by discriminating the navigable regions for traversal thereby optimizing its speed and increasing its ...

We present a wearable RGB-D camera based navigation system for the visually impaired. The navigation system is expected to enable the visually impaired to extend the range of their activities compared to that provided by conventional aid devices, such as white cane. Since this design is a successor version of a previous stereo camera based system to overcome a limitation of stereo vision based ...

In some surveillance missions in the aftermath of disasters, the use of a teleoperated tracked vehicle contributes to the safety of rescue crews. However, because of its insufficient traversal capability, the vehicle can become trapped upon encountering rough terrain. This may lead to mission failure and, in the worst case, loss of the vehicle. To improve the success rate of such missions, it i...

Autonomous robots should be able to move freely in unknown environments and avoid impacts with obstacles. The overall traversability estimation of the terrain and the subsequent selection of an obstacle-free route are prerequisites of a successful autonomous operation. This work proposes a computationally efficient technique for the traversability estimation of the terrain, based on a machine l...

1992 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. Abstract In this paper we propose a programming language mecha...

In four studies we investigated the perception of the affordance for traversal of a supporting surface. The surface presented was either rigid or deformable, and this property was specified either optically, haptically, or both. In Experiment 1A, crawling and walking infants were presented with two surfaces in succession: a standard surface that both looked and felt rigid and a deforming surfac...