Assessing unmanned ground vehicle tactical behaviors performance

The Army Research Laboratory Robotic Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) made significant advances in perception (LADAR and near and mid-term perception algorithms) and planning (global/local route planning, shared map data, and the ability to use time as a planning factor) which enabled true UGV autonomous navigation (planning and controlling the course and position of a vehicle) [1,3]. This opened the door to a myriad of operational-like capabilities which we call tactical behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the assessment process with a focus on performance metrics and to foster collaboration with other investigators in order to further derive meaningful metrics for UGV autonomous navigation.