Utilising Weather and Terrain Data to Improve Autonomous Navigation

Autonomous vehicles are progressively arriving on our roads following a wealth of research on autonomous driving on roads. Autonomous off-road driving is also being researched, but aspects such as the effect of weather conditions on the terrain has been largely ignored. Anyone who drives will likely have experienced the effects that heavy rain or ice can have on ground conditions, and yet the effect the weather has on ground conditions is not incorporated into autonomous systems. This paper will outline the benefit of incorporating weather and terrain data together into autonomous navigation and will then go on to discuss how a proposed system will be designed and developed to test the benefit these types of data can bring when used together.