Positive and negative obstacle sensing with a forward-looking InSAR for UGV
Radar sensors have received more and more interest for Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) to sense positive and negative obstacles in unstructured environments or out fields. We have proposed a forward-looking InSAR can provide more information of harsh off-road environments than existing UGV based radars. The forward-looking InSAR can provide a scattering image, a coherence image and a digital terrain map of the same scene ahead the radar during each scan. Each type of image can highlight some unique features of obstacle. Those images could provide abundant information for autonomous navigation systems, which would consequently increase the survivability of the UGV on the battlefield. We have conducted a field experiment on a ground covered by sparse grasses to support the phenomenological studies of the backscatter from positive and negative obstacles for autonomous UGV navigation.