Unmanned ground vehicle otonobil: Design, perception, and decision algorithms

Unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) have been the subject of research in recent years due to their future prospective of solving the traffic congestion and improving the safety on roads while having a more energy-efficient profile. In this chapter, the first UGV of Turkey, Otonobil, will be introduced detailing especially on its hardware and software design architecture, the perception capabilities and decision algorithms used in obstacle avoidance, and autonomous goal-oriented docking. UGV Otonobil features a novel heuristic algorithm to avoid dynamic obstacles, and the vehicle is an open test-rig for studying several intelligent-vehicle technologies such as steer-by-wire, intelligent traction control, and further artificial intelligence algorithms for acting in real-traffic conditions.