Why NATURE?
Autonomous navigation in off-road environments breaks many of
the assumptions built into other autonomy algorithms. Without road networks,
engineer slopes, and vegetation-free path options, the problem of off-road
navigations is more complex and open-ended than on-road autonomy.
The NATURE stack provides a starting point for researchers
interested in studying off-road autonomy by providing a full suite of
algorithms (global and local planning, vehicle control, and perception)
designed for off-road navigation.
NATURE is being used by researchers at the US Army Engineer
Research and Development Center to support the development of advanced
simulation tools, and provided the foundation for the stack used by the NATO
AVT-341 working group on “Mobility Assessment Methods and Tools for Autonomous
Military Ground Systems”. The NATURE stack supports a variety of ongoing
research into off-road autonomy at MSU-CAVS.