Robot Navigation in a Rich Information Map for Inspection in Nuclear Environments - 18596
This paper discusses our approach of using an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) to perform inspection tasks in nuclear environments. To reduce people's exposure to the environment with elevated radiation levels, our goal is enabling UGV to navigate and perform inspections fully autonomous with no human getting involved. To achieve the full automation, the UGV can take use of a rich information map. In traditional robot navigation, the 2D global cost map used for planning path consists only obstacle locations, while a rich information map also includes location information of interested objects to robot. The UGV can then use a rich information map to perform routine inspection tasks with known object locations. In this paper, we will present our method of generating a rich information map and the usage of this map for International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Robotics Challenge. (authors)