Autonomous robot navigation in alpine terrain

Autonomous robot navigation in remote areas received increasing attention in recent years. The goal is to develop efficient and reliable systems that can be used in various situations. Thereby, the challenge arises that such systems must also be able to ensure safe and reliable navigation in unknown environments and situations. Especially disaster response robots often have to navigate in remote terrain such as alpine environments, which represent complex situations that have to be mastered. A major problem for navigation in remote and unknown environment is the the lack of detailed maps and situation awareness. In order to improve the navigation in such a terrain and to improve the usability of a robot in disaster situations, this paper presents a navigation concept that allows to autonomously operate a robot in an alpine environment. The approach for this concept is to use earth observation data from satellite images and to extract information which can be used for navigation. A first experiment conducted in the Austrian alps validated the operability in alpine offroad terrain.