System Design and Realization of an Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicle using GPS-Based Navigation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Egyptian Armed Forces, Egypt.

2 Assoc. Prof, Computer Eng. Dept, Cairo University, Egypt.

Abstract

Unmanned vehicles have been an active area of research and development over the past three decades. Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) are used in both civilian and military applications all over the world. The design of the ground control station hardware and software can become very complicated depending on the UGV mission and the autonomous
guidance required. This paper introduces an autonomous system capable of guiding a small UGV via GPS. Different control methods are used including radio control (RC), joystick, and autonomous control. The GPS navigation loop provides continuous and reliable navigation data to the waypoint guidance algorithm and its control loop which is responsible for
autonomous navigation. This control loop computes the guidance commands to follow the waypoint scenarios encountered and generates actuator signals for steering and speed control. The guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) algorithm was implemented within an embedded processor which communicates with the ground control station (GCS) over a wireless channel. The real-time test results indicate that the vehicle can reliably perform autonomous guidance in different scenarios.

Keywords