Many autonomous ground vehicle (AGV) missions, such as those related to agricultural applications, search and rescue, or reconnaissance
and surveillance, require the vehicle to operate in difficult outdoor terrains such as sand, mud, or snow. To ensure the safety
and performance of AGVs on these terrains, a terrain-dependent driving and control system can be implemented. A key first
step in implementing this system is autonomous terrain classification. It has recently been shown that the magnitude of the
spatial frequency response of the terrain is an effective terrain signature. Furthermore, since the spatial frequency response
is mapped by an AGV’s vibration transfer function to the frequency response of the vibration measurements, the magnitude of
the latter frequency responses also serve as a terrain signature. Hence, this paper focuses on terrain classification using
vibration measurements. Classification is performed using a probabilistic neural network, which can be implemented online
at relatively high computational speeds. The algorithm is applied experimentally to both an ATRV-Jr and an eXperimental Unmanned
Vehicle (XUV) at multiple speeds. The experimental results show the efficacy of the proposed approach.
Keywords Autonomous ground vehicles - Probabilistic neural network