…Researchers from CMU’s AirLab on Thursday held a live demonstration of TartanDriver, their self-driving all-terrain vehicle. Unlike the far more ubiquitous robo-taxis trained to navigate city streets, the TartanDriver is designed to traverse what researchers call “unstructured” environments where the autonomous vehicle must chart its own path through tricky terrain.
Autonomous vehicles being developed by companies like Pittsburgh-based Aurora and Waymo follow laid-out routes, predictable traffic laws and street markers to travel from point A to point B.
Paths in forests and deserts aren’t as well-defined — if at all. Consider also the obstacles one might encounter off-road: a steep slope, loose gravel, muddy ditch or patch of tall grass that may or may not be traversable.
“Autonomous driving is a lot more structured than this field,” said Sebastian Scherer, an Associate Research Professor at CMU’s Robotics Institute. “Oh, there’s a car, there’s a person. Avoid them. Here, we’re trying to figure out if we cannot go through this grass. Is this gravel safe? Am I going to get stuck in the mud?”