Range based cybernavigation in natural known environments

This paper concerns the navigation of a physical robot in real natural environments which have been previously scanned in considerable (3D and colour image) detail so as to permit virtual exploration by cybernavigation prior to mission replication in the real world. An on-board high speed 3D laser scanner is used to localise the robot (determine its position and orientation) in its working environment by applying scan matching against the model data previously collected.