The Driving Pipeline: A Driving Control Scheme for Mobile Robots

Abstract

Mobile robot vehicles must control the execution of numerous perception and planning processes to navigate successfully in complex environments. In the past, most mobile robot systems have utilized “stop-and-go” control schemes that avoid addressing the driving control problem, or have used fixed control schemes that do not allow for the changing environment and field of view of the vehicle. This paper presents a new architecture for mobile robot control called the “Driving Pipeline”, that integrates multiple perception and planning processes and provides continuous motion with adaptive control. The Driving Pipeline has been implemented and tested on numerous versions of two vehicles: the Terregator and the Navlab. It has proven to be a flexible and powerful mechanism for building integrated software for mobile robot perception and planning.