This thesis describes the initial development of the Texas A&M Autonomous
Ground Vehicle test platform and waypoint following software, including the associated
controller design. The original goal of the team responsible for the development of the
vehicle was to enter the DARPA Grand Challenge in October 2005. A 2004 Ford F150
4x4 pickup was chosen as the vehicle platform and was modified with a 6Â suspension
lift and 35Â tires, as well as a commercial drive-by-wire system. The waypoint following
software, the design of which is described in this thesis, is written in C and successfully
drives the vehicle on a course defined by GPS waypoints at speeds up to 50 mph. It uses
various heuristics to determine desired speeds and headings and uses control feedback to
guide the vehicle towards these desired states. A vehicle dynamics simulator was also
developed for software testing. Ultimately, this software will accept commands from
advanced obstacle avoidance software so that the vehicle can navigate in true off-road
terrain.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/3862 |
| Date | 16 August 2006 |
| Creators | Massey, James Patrick |
| Contributors | McDermott, Make |
| Publisher | Texas A&M University |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | 6328295 bytes, electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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